


Nomad

by eibbil_one



Category: Twilight
Genre: Drama, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-21
Updated: 2010-02-20
Packaged: 2017-10-17 15:54:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 83,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/178473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eibbil_one/pseuds/eibbil_one
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><i>A/N: Disclaimer. The base characters, names, general characteristics belong to SMeyer, what they do in this story belongs to me.</i></p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> _A/N: Disclaimer. The base characters, names, general characteristics belong to SMeyer, what they do in this story belongs to me._

_A/N#2: This fic is wildly AU. Whole new universe sort of AU. For the purposes of my universe, this is the (very very basic) timeline from Bella's arrival in Forks to story open. No, it does not go into depth about why such things are, that's what the story's for :D This should give you an idea, though._

 _Nomad Timeline_

 _January 2005 – Bella Swan arrives in Forks_

 _February 2005 – Sam Uley marries Leah Clearwater, the newlyweds move to Seattle. Jared is in college in California, Paul is in the military...all of them no longer living at LaPush_

 _Early April 2005 – a few unexplained murders in and around Forks, Washington_

 _Mid-April 2005 – Bella Swan disappears_

 _Mid-April 2005 – Jacob Black disappears, presumably looking for his best friend Bella_

 _Early May 2005 – Jacob returns, but without Bella, he never speaks of where he went_

 _December 2006 – The Cullens arrive in Forks, Washington._

 _New Years Eve 2006 – Jacob and Billy Black, Quil Ataera and Embry Call meet with Carlisle, renew treaty, life in Forks goes on..._

 _May 2007 – Nomad opens_

Chapter 1

The electricity of the storm outside prickled along my skin. Each flash, each crash caused another wave of energy to pass over the granite that used to be skin.

These storms were one of the reasons I enjoyed this part of the country so much. They weren't the light shows and tornado whirlwinds of the middle part of the country that destroyed what dared stand in their path. These storms were more subtle in their destruction, inundating the area , drowning out all but the heartiest, and only clearing their throat once in a while.

Tonight's storm was all about the throat clearing.

I watched from the wall of windows opposite my bed. My heightened senses alerted me to the lighting a half-second before it struck and my eyes were always ready on the spot just above the trees.

 _Crack!_

The greenery outside my bedroom window was illuminated in that blinding flash of light for less than a second, but it was enough for my mind to see every detail. See and hold the picture as if snapped by a camera.

My photographic memory was one of the few things I could stand about myself, and my fate. I took advantage of it as often as I could. Even if it was something as mundane as analyzing every detail of a lightning-illuminated forest. After all, what else was there to do besides listen to the mindless prattle of the woman pretending to enjoy watching the storm with me?

If I gave one hint, one motion to indicate that my study of the storm was over, she'd be crawling over my skin again like a bad rash. As if she was the one reading my thoughts, I felt her hand press against my stomach, shifting just enough to indicate an impending trip south. I stilled her hand by placing mine atop it.

No, thank you.

Predictably, the babbles turned to harping. And blessing of blessings, I was able to hear the harping she spoke as well as the insults she only thought at me. For some reason, my transformation from mortal to immortal had left me with the ability to hear thoughts as clearly as words. Times like this, however, it was more curse than blessing.

Because it would land me in even more trouble if I didn't at least have a semblance of what she was saying, I turned half of my attention away from the storm. I heard the tirade she was spewing at me for stopping her, her disdain for my interest in the asinine weather, and the empty threats to leave as she felt so very underappreciated.

"Of course I appreciate you, Tanya," I lied, knowing this was where she wanted me to interrupt.

"Then why do I rate lower than clouds, rain and a few flashes of light?"

"I wouldn't put it that way."

I felt her shift on the bed to sit up and look at me. The room was pitch black save the infrequent lightning flashes, but that made little difference to us. I could see how pissed she was at me without the aid of additional lighting just fine.

Lucky me.

"Then which way would you put it, Edward? You've got a naked and willing woman in your bed and you'd rather look at a bunch of trees? Maybe I should just go back to humans. At least they stayed interested."

"If that's what you want," I said, trying to keep the hope out of my voice.

"It's not what I want, you ass. I want you, I always have done and you know it."

"Yes, I do. And now you have me. But having me comes with my enjoying thunderstorms and literature, music and chess and a host of other pursuits that don't require one or both parties to be nude. You keep forgetting that."

Tanya snarled at me and sprang from the bed. She was back in her clothes less than a second later. "If that's the way you're going to be, I'm leaving for home now rather than in the morning."

"Drive carefully," I added and this time she screamed her frustration at me, along with several very colorful words.

The door had barely shut behind her when my mobile buzzed on the desk. I couldn't read a phone's mind, but I knew who it was well enough. I ignored it. I wasn't in the mood.

Instead I watched the storm continue to clear its throat around me, some lightning strikes shaking the very house.

The house was big and open, the back wall nearly all window and all of them looking over the lush, green forest behind us, hints of the river visible if you knew where to look.

It was one of the reasons I went along with Alice's determination that we stay here in Forks even though the old wolf pack, or their descendents, remained in the nearby reservation.

Rose, naturally, had pushed to leave. She'd hated the scent the wolves left behind ever since our first time living here, seventy or so years ago, and didn't want to endure it again. Alice, however, had been adamant. And when push came to shove, we didn't question it when she was that insistent. I'd tried to see why she was being almost pig-headed about it, but I'd never heard anything in her mind to indicate a reason behind her insistence.

Eventually, I stopped looking because I hadn't cared one way or another. Another town, another high school, another stretch of years to endure before moving provided a break in the monotony once again.

Until the day I'd found the homemade poster, seen those haunting brown eyes, and started to wonder what had happened to the girl behind them. Ever since then, I'd been as reluctant to leave as Alice had been. Not that my family knew anything about that.

Five minutes after the first ignored phone call, the house phone rang. A second later, my cell phone trilled at me from the bedside table. As both phones were side by side, I checked the caller IDs – one had my sister's cell phone number, the other listed her husband, Jasper's. Apparently she wasn't giving in until she talked to me and was going to take any means necessary to make sure that happened.

I chose to answer the phone rather than listen to incessant ringing all night long.

"Hello, Alice. You're calling very late."

There was a long pause during which I heard Alice issue a long, dramatic exhale into her phone. "Well, shit."

"Are you just harassing me by phone simply to cuss at me or was there another reason?"

"You said you were breaking it off with Tanya tonight."

"I said I intended to, but it didn't work out that way."

"So I saw. All those happy visions of a Tanya-free future went away. Depressed the fuck out of me."

"Terribly sorry."

"Why, Edward? Why won't you just break it off for her and make us all, especially yourself, so much happier?"

"I can't, Alice. She's fancied herself in love with me since the first time she saw me, what? Thirty years ago? She's spent the better part of those thirty years chasing after me every time we've been in the same hemisphere. D'you know how annoying that is? No, you don't. None of you do. I'm the only single Cullen and Tanya's decided she's the one who'll change all that." I paused, sighed. "If I break it off, you know damned well she'll throw her energies into 'winning me back'."

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Alice was only speechless when she knew I was right.

"The only way to be truly shut of her is to wait for her to realize on her own that we're more poorly matched than oil and water."

More silence.

"Alice?"

"Yeah, I'm here. Disappointed, but here."

"It'll work out, eventually, I'm sure. She's already getting irritated with me more and more often, and did, in fact, storm out of here a bit ago. Time's on my side, little sister. Now tell me, how's London?"

The change of subject brightened Alice considerably. I could almost hear her bouncing on the balls of her feet as she told me all about what she and Jazz had seen on their trip, a fourth (or was it fifth?) honeymoon. We were all on Spring Break from high school and my parents and siblings had all taken off for points distant, I'd stayed behind. With Tanya. She'd been excited about the prospect of a week together, without the eyes and ears of our families around us for a change.

That excitement had waned when she found I wasn't interested in spending every second of it seeing to her pleasure in bed.

More out of habit than need, I pulled on a pair of old sweat pants as I got up from the bed. Alice was prattling on about the second day of their trip now and I had returned to watching the storm. We were nearing the end now, I knew and if past history repeated, some of the best lightning strikes would happen right near the end.

Not caring for the feel of wet clothes, I kept on the dry side of my patio windows, staring out at the back lawn while Alice described Hyde Park to me unnecessarily as I'd been there several times myself. Still, it was interesting to see it from her perspective.

As my eyes darted here and there over the forest floor, my attention was drawn to ripples on one puddle near the edge of the where the forest encroached on our yard. There was an odd shape on the ground near it. I focused my eyes more closely. It was a bare human footprint.

On the other end of the line, Alice gasped.

"Alice, what is it?

I knew that sound only too well. The only thing that ever surprised a psychic was a random flash into the future.

"What did you see?"

"Nothing, Edward. It was nothing."

I snorted, still staring at the small footprint next to the puddle, trying to puzzle out who it belonged to. "Now why don't I believe you?"

"Because you're a horribly mistrusting brother and I'm ashamed to call you family?" Alice actually sniffed in my ear.

"Bullshit," I laughed back, though only a quarter of my attention was on the conversation.

It was very small, maybe Alice-sized? But Alice never set foot outside the house in her bare feet, much less romped around our forest that way. No, these belonged to someone else.

A child? Another young human stupidly wandering the woods without clue of the dangers surrounding them? We were far from the guardians of Forks, but this town had already been victim to one mysterious disappearance, thankfully years before we'd arrived; it didn't need to have that happen again.

"No, Alice," I responded by rote, "I'm not going after Tanya to break it off, so give it up. I was actually thinking of going hunting."

"Have fun with that. It's odd, but I'm actually missing elk."

"You're such a liar," I half-laughed back. I was already debating whether or not I should at least change into more appropriate attire for tramping through the forest, but decided against it. I was too eager to investigate.

"Man, you must be really thirsty, Edward. You're not listening to a word I say," she heaved a dramatic sigh in my ear. "All right then. Have fun hunting and I'll call again tomorrow." She hung up without another word, and without waiting for me to say my goodbyes either.

If I hadn't been so preoccupied, I would have been curious about how easy it had been to get Alice off the phone...or why it had almost sounded like she'd been laughing.

After an hour's fruitless searching, I decided to give it up and troop back to the house. My feet were muddy and my sweatpants near hanging off my hips from the weight of the water they'd collected from the soaked flora around me. Soaking, filthy, and without a clue who could have make that small footprint near the edge of our clearing, I was already thinking of a shower and fresh clothes.

The only thing I knew for certain for all that searching was that it had been a vampire who made the footprint in the mud.

I'd never been much of a tracker, but the vampire's scent was all over the forest, concentrating very specifically around our house. This worried me only slightly – we had visitors occasionally over the years, nomads passing through and curious about the number of us managing to live in harmony. One stray vampire wasn't worry enough to call the family back, but it was enough to keep my extra sense honed. I couldn't hear the mind attached to this sweet scent, but fast as we could run, that didn't mean the vampire had gone away entirely.

I'd call Carlisle when I got back to the house and-

All thoughts cut off abruptly. There was a vampire standing a hundred feet in front of me. She was dirty and disheveled, a mop of brown hair all but obscuring her face.

She was crouched in a hunting stance, a soft hiss was escaping from between her teeth...and I couldn't hear a sound from her mind.

Instinct had me copying her posture, but in defense rather than offense. I wasn't going to attack, but I wasn't going to be taken down standing, either. For the most part, the nomads were a friendly bunch. They might have been a bit bemused by the life we lead here, but content to move on and leave us to our perversions, as one memorable visitor had termed our vegetarianism.

When a full minute passed and the nomad made no move to attack, I slowly straightened from my crouch. I raised my hands, palms forward.

"It's all right, I won't hurt you."

I could have been mistaken, but I thought I heard a soft, delicate snort from the female across from me. She straightened, though, no longer looking as though she was seconds away from lunging for my throat.

I surveyed the other vampire now that my senses weren't honed for attack, a bit surprised at the state of her. While nomads normally weren't bothered with such things as air or water temperatures, or sleep, the creature comforts of a home were rarely missed in their lives. Still, most looked, if still wild, presentable for the most part.

This vampire looked as if she hadn't seen presentable in months, if not years.

The silence stretched between us and I began to wish my father was here – he was a much better diplomat than I was.

"I'm Edward," I said, figuring introductions were as good a start as any. I took a step forward, my hand extended in an age-old gesture of greeting.

She was gone before my foot hit the forest floor.

"Shit. Brilliant, Edward. Smooth as silk, that's you." I could almost hear my sister Rosalie snorting in laughter.

I stood berating myself for nearly a full minute before I realized which direction the female had run.

If she continued on her present path, she'd run straight onto the reservation.

The debate took seconds only. She was a vampire, and by rule very fast, but mind-reading wasn't my only skill. I was also very, very fast. I was running after her in the next unnecessary blink of my eyes, following her scent trail as easily as if it had been marked with neon lights.

She was fast, I gave her that, but I still caught her easily. She put on an extra burst of speed, my only indication that she knew I was following her, but I matched it easily. The problem was we had covered a great deal of distance in the pursuit and we were dangerously close to the reservation.

Thankfully, her instincts served her well and she slowed her run when the first whiffs of the wolf stench reached us. Not wanting to spook her further, I slowed my pace as well. I thought I heard another laugh carry on the wind towards me and then she was off again – straight for the reservation.

"No!" I called out.

Her footfalls continued. The wolf stench was growing; we were getting closer. I increased my speed and changed my course. I was close enough that it took only seconds for me to move past and intercept her. My speed, and my familiarity with the forest and its shortcuts, gave me the edge I needed.

I didn't know this woman from Eve, but no one deserved to meet up with a trio of werewolves with an overblown sense of duty If she didn't have any fighting skill, she'd be kibble before the moon rose.

"Stop!" I said it louder this time, planting my feet directly in her path, my hands upraised and outstretched. "You cross their border, they'll kill you."

She stopped running.

For the first time since becoming a vampire, I squinted. When I heard her feet stop their run, I looked up, expecting to finally see the face behind the quiet mind. I was disappointed. All I saw were the tattered remnants of a pair of jeans and a sweater and a head full of dark, disheveled hair that totally obscured the face beneath it.

"Who?"

"Who what?" I asked in return. I wanted to hear her voice again, but I was disappointed. Only silence greeted my question. I tried again.

"Who will kill you?" I asked, clarifying for her.

Disappointment again when she only nodded in response.

"Just past that line of trees? That's the La Push Reservation, small tribe of Native Americans with," I snorted out a laugh, "a few hidden talents and no tolerance for our kind. You cross that border, it's open season."

She scoffed, a snort that sounded more like a symphony.

"I've seen what they can do, and we're child's play for them. Believe me on that, nomad."

Something about her silence seemed skeptical, so I continued. "It's true. Another nomad crossed through here about eight months ago. Hit the area around dusk. He was in pieces before the moon rose and ash by midnight. "

Her head was turned towards the reservation, body still poised to run there.

"But. How?"

It was easy to hear that beautiful though her voice was, she didn't use it very often.

"Werewolves," I said succinctly. With her posture still indicating she meant to go forward, I thought it best not to beat around the bush.

"Impossible. Europe," she said, then paused. It was as if she was trying to remember how to talk. "Was told, stay away Eastern Europe. Not America."

She was told? By whom? I quelled my curious mind from forcing my lips to ask the question. Now was very definitely not the time. I could only hope that there would be time later.

"That type are, yes. The Children of the Moon, they're called. These are more shape-shifters, but their speed and their teeth, serve the same purpose. If anything, their deadlier as they're not ruled by instinct, but by intellect."

Our impasse stretched, the nomad looking towards the reservation with something almost like longing and me standing ineffectual and filthy, blocking her way.

"All right."

If I'd been able to hear her mind I could have stopped her. If Alice had been here, she'd have seen the move before it happened.

Instead, the nomad darted past me, her slender hand knocking into my chest. A second before her fingers made contact, I was brought to my knees by an infernal scream that had me clapping hands over my ears. A simple scream wouldn't have been enough to even give me pause, normally, but this one echoed through my mind like crushing metal.

By the time my mind had cleared of the sound, the nomad was gone and I was alone in the forest.

Frustrated and angry, I picked myself up and turned to run back towards the house. I needed time to sort through what had happened, what it meant, if it meant anything at all.

If the wind hadn't picked that minute to rustle around me, I might not have seen the flutter of material. I stopped and turned on a dime, reaching up to pluck the bit of fabric from the branch.

I brought it to my nose and inhaled, confirming my suspicion that it belonged to the nomad female. It did. Her sweet scent was all over the material.

I slipped it into my pocket and turned towards home. Only to be stopped dead in my tracks once again, this time by a half-naked Native American and horse-sized wolf blocking my path.

"Evening, Quil. Walking your dog a little late, aren't you?"

My laughter almost drowned out Jake's growls.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N: Disclaimer time – While these characters don't belong to me, what they do in this does._

We stood there for a few minutes, surveying one another, before I finally broke the silence.

"Seriously, Quil, what are you doing all the way out here this time of the morning?"

Even though the three of us knew that I could have simply read the answer in their minds, I asked out loud. No need to flaunt my ability just because I could. Besides, it was always best to use manners… especially when out-numbered two to one.

We had a treaty, yes, but when other vampires neared the reservation, it got a bit more tenuous. And I had quite enough on my mind tonight without testing the edges of that treaty.

"Embry was patrolling and caught a scent we didn't recognize. He told me he was headed here to check it out, so I went to get Jake. When he got closer to this area, and heard two lee- vampires," Quil corrected, "running full tilt for the border. We came out to join him to find out what was going on. We knew the rest of your family was out of town, and didn't recognize the new scent as a Cullen or the, er, others like you from up north..." he broke off when Jake growled low to get my attention.

I turned to look at him.

 _I'm shocked, Cullen. A nomad? Really? Never figured you for slumming it. Do us a favor, though, and keep the leech humping from our borders? Your stench is quite enough without adding_ that _into the mix._

I shook my head, refusing to let Jake bait me. It was a source of constant frustration for the leader of the Quileute pack that I didn't rise to his taunts like Emmett did. Didn't stop him from trying, though.

"Lovely as ever, Jake. Is it any wonder you're still single?"

After a long, disdainful look at the wolf, I turned my attention to Quil. He was at least somewhat civilized, for a wolf. "There was a nomad female here. New to the area and a bit on the wild side."

I saw the look they shared and held up a hand before their thoughts could spin even further out of control. "Relax, both of you. And Embry too, wherever you've left him during this little meeting. She was wild, but not feral. She had some civility to her, common sense as well. I warned her away from the border. She didn't believe me at first, but I explained your," I waved a hand at Jake, "condition and the rest of it. Now she's left, run off in another direction. I doubt she'll be returning and if she does, she'll stay far away from here."

Jake nodded at me, which might have been from gratitude, but, knowing Jake, was probably just an acknowledgement that I'd made noise.

"That seems to settle it all up then. No harm, no foul, and everything back to normal. We'll leave you to your morning," Quil said and turned back towards the reservation. The wolves were never ones to linger near us if they could at all avoid it.

Jake followed him, walking backwards with his attention on me as if I was poised to spring. I rolled my eyes. Sometimes I thought the wolves of LaPush half-wished we _would_ attack, simply for something to do, a reason to justify their transformation. From what I could get out their minds, when I cared enough to listen, I wasn't far off base.

I heard the characteristic whoosh that was Quil phasing to wolf form for the run home and expected Jake to tear off after him. I'd heard it often enough in his thoughts – the speed was the one thing he loved about his wolf form.

He was just about to turn run after Quil when the wind stirred around me, a stray gust from the all-but-forgotten storm. I expected a loud whine-whimper from Jake when my scent hit his oversensitive nose – the wolves had quite a flair for the dramatic and according to them we were slightly less aromatic than rotting garbage. They never, ever missed an opportunity to let us know just how rank they found us.

But he didn't whimper, he didn't whine. He just stopped, turned and looked at me. His large head lifted and sniffed the air. Our eyes met in that moment, almost as if he was trying to read _my_ mind.

When I tried to do the same, I was rewarded with Jake's favorite mental block – a mind filled with nothing but trees and thudding paws. But even more odd was the sense that it wasn't just me he was blocking.

I pondered calling after him, or calling Quil back, but decided on balance that I didn't really care about whatever Jake was trying to hide. It had been a long night, and I wanted clean, more comfortable clothes. If Jake wanted to talk to me, he knew where I lived.

Without any more thought than that, I turned and ran back home.

I spent the last two days of my solitude searching the forest surrounding my house for any trace of the nomad. No matter what I told the wolves about doubting her return to the area, I didn't want to believe it. She probably was miles from here, but that didn't stop me from hoping the opposite…or from searching for signs that I'd been wrong.

I'd gone from Forks to the Canadian border, the Oregon border, and in one fit of absolute insanity, I'd run all the way to Montana.

I came back from each trip with a hundred different trails strong with her scent. Now that I knew it so well, picking it out even among the flora and fauna surrounding me was child's play. But however familiar the scent, none of her trails lead to where she was now.

They all let to the same general location, though – the forested cliffs just at the point of the Olympic Peninsula.

When the nomad left, she left by the ocean, which left me with an infinite number of possibilities over where she'd surface again. It could be yards away, it could be miles. It could be England.

It was frustrating as hell.

"You're just going to have to be patient," my mother, Esme, said unhelpfully, patting my cheek. "Clearly she's been here before, and often if all those trails mean anything. She'll come back."

I could be patient, I knew I could. One didn't reach past the century mark without at least a modicum of patience. I was just having a little trouble harnessing it lately. It had been awhile since I'd had any real human emotions, after all.

My mother had told me to be patient with that as well.

I was beginning to truly hate that word.

I pulled the scrap from her sweater out of my pocket and ran my fingers softly over the material, fingers caressing the now familiar ridges in the yarn.

"Ugh, not that dirty bit of yarn again," Alice sniffed in indignation from across the room. "You know, you might've had a better shot at finding out more about her if you'd invited her back here, Edward. You said she was a mess, why not ask her if she wanted to clean up a little. We have more than enough clothes, too."

"Clothing was rather the last thing on my mind, Alice," I said, stuffing it back in my pocket, "I was too preoccupied with a possible attack."

"Pfft," Alice scoffed. Apparently, if I wanted sympathy from my sister, I had to have actual body parts separated. The admonition for me to "not be such a baby about it" had been repeated several times.

Her compassion was always touching.

"Sorry, Alice. Next time I come across a half-hostile nomad, I'll be sure and ask her if she wants to come home and play dress up with you, that better?"

Alice hissed, Esme cleared her throat, Emmett laughed…all within seconds of one another. Nothing new there, really. Just another evening at the Cullen house.

Carlisle spoke before I could take the verbal battle with Alice further. "Explain it to me again, Edward. What happened when she passed by you?"

We all heard Emmett cackle from the game room upstairs. "Still can't believe you got schooled, kid. Guess there really is a first time for everything."

I ignored him. As usual.

"It was nothing I'd ever felt before. It wasn't like Kate's shocks, or Jane's torture, or any other extrasensory ability we've seen," I explained.

I was sure Carlisle's interest wasn't due to worry over our safety. My father had a love of learning and this nomad represented something new. Carlisle thrived as much on knowledge as he did on blood and as he was nearing his fourth century of existence, he was like an eager puppy when confronted with something he'd never experienced before.

I saw the look of concentration cross his face and focused my mind on his. Carlisle was thinking of other vampires he'd met with special abilities over the centuries, but nothing fit with the mental scream I'd heard in my head.

"Nothing," I said out loud, echoing his concluding thought.

"Nothing," he concurred.

He was silent for a while, nearly a whole minute before speaking again. "Jasper," he said quietly. "Have you experienced anything like it?"

"Not exactly," my newest brother said from where he was tinkering with a scale model of the Alamo on the second floor. "I mean, it's a primitive battle strategy, dating back centuries, to scream at an opponent to gain a second's surprise. That second's advantage can make all the difference, sometimes, especially for us, but as I said, it's primitive. If that was her whole defensive strategy, surprise and run off? She's not more of an escaper than a fighter, and not likely to attack unprovoked."

"What does it matter, though, she's gone, right? Not coming back," Rose chimed in from the library. She sounded entirely too happy with the prospect. But that was Rose. She didn't like having her world upended for anything trivial – and by her definition, trivial meant 'not pertaining to, or of interest to, Rose.'

"So far as we know," I agreed with as much of a blasé tone as I could manage with the scrap of her sweater from the forest still in my pocket.

In the answering silence, we all turned to Alice. My focus narrowed, but her mind was silent, nothing of the usual tricks she employed to keep me out of her thoughts. "I haven't seen anything," she said simply. "She's not a threat to us, like Jasper said, so why would I?"

Alice was right. Why would she?

With a sigh I headed up to my room. Dawn was approaching and we had school in a few hours time.

Another little slice of joy.

I had just closed my bedroom door behind me, not wanting to risk anyone stumbling on my new, pitiable, habit, and pulled the scrap of material from my pocket. As I stared at it, I wondered for the hundredth time, why I couldn't just put it in the trash and move on. It wasn't as though I wasn't trying. I'd tossed the thing four times at least in the past twenty four hours.

And every time it ended up right back in my pocket.

My fingers were playing over the soft, worn material as I laid back on the sofa in my room, my feet out in front of me on the coffee table. I was still trying to figure out the mystery of the woman in the woods but nothing made sense.

One thing that stuck out was the way she'd looked towards the reservation – and there had been a look. Every time I thought over that scene in my mind it was there. Like the risk of being ripped to shreds was a risk worth taking. But why would she—especially if Jasper was right and fighting wasn't her forte? Why would anyone want to take on three vicious dogs just to get at that mostly worthless bit of land?

My phone buzzed on the nightstand next to me, interrupting my train of thought before it could get rolling.

Even without Alice's precognition, I felt the dread form in my stomach. With my family home, there was only one person who would be calling.

Tanya.

It had been days since she had stormed out of here. Days since I'd thought of her at all.

Not good.

Normally her dramatic exit would have necessitated a call to ensure that she'd made it home safely, or something equally asinine given that we were virtually indestructible. My parents, both human and immortal, had been adamant about manners and gentility, however – and that meant that if you didn't see the lady home yourself, you called to make sure she had, indeed, arrived there without incident.

But not an hour after she'd left, my life had been upended and all other thoughts had fled completely.

The phone stopped ringing. There was a silent pause of a few seconds before it started again. Still, I did nothing but stare at my mobile, thinking over how the last two days had been spent focused on the nomad.

The way I was acting was dancing very close to the obsession that had consumed me when we first moved here. I know it was on the minds of more than one of my family members, but to give them their credit, none had mentioned it.

The phone went silent. Pause. The ringing recommenced.

The further downside was that I'd been so consumed with thoughts of the nomad that my sense of propriety had been completely derailed. All thoughts of Tanya had fallen even further to the back of my mind than they usually did when we were apart.

Ours was a very out of sight, out of mind sort of relationship…on my side, anyway.

"Hello, Tanya," I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster when I realized she was not about to stop calling until I answered.

I could hear her intake of unnecessary breath and knew what was coming. There was only on reason Tanya would need both lungs full of air.

The diatribe went on for at least five minutes straight. Over and over again I was informed of what a subpar individual I was, how I had the consideration of a gnat, how she could have been attacked by one of the wolves and left to burn and I'd never have known, and so on and so on.

Every time I thought she was finished, it turned out she was just resupplying her lungs for the next round of Edward's An Ass and Here's Why. I knew for a fact she could go on for hours like this.

Lucky me.

We went through three cycles of this before I knew she was spent enough for her to even have a hope of hearing me if I spoke. I waited until she was resupplying for the fourth round to say the only thing I could think of to stop the rant.

"I suppose," I said, interrupting her before the she could get going, "this means you're breaking up with me, then, right?"

The silence that followed was almost deafening to ears that had done nothing but listen to seething shouts for the past few minutes. It took her a second to rebalance, and another to start backpedaling. I wondered if she would try tears.

If it wasn't so tedious, I might have actually enjoyed myself.

"You. What. P-Pardon? Breaking up? Edward, no. How can you even think that, after all we mean to each other?"

"We don't mean anything to each other, Tanya, and I'd hoped by now you'd realize that."

"How could I ever realize something so utterly and completely absurd? I love you, Edward, you love me. We've said it a hundred times to each other. "

"No, Tanya, you've told me that I love you a hundred times. I've never once said the words." I normally wouldn't have been so harsh about it, but I wasn't going to let her carry on with that particular delusion. I could, and did, lie about just about anything – but I wouldn't lie about that.

The shocked gasp would have been effectual on anyone who'd not spent a protracted amount of time around my sister, Alice. She'd perfected the sound decades ago and in the process inured the rest of us to it.

The hiss of indignant outrage lost its punch after a few decades.

"There's someone else, isn't there?"

My mouth was open to deny that, because nothing would have spurred Tanya on more than the challenge of trying to win me back from another. But before I could utter even a denial my eyes rose from the textbook I'd been flipping through to the forest beyond our house.

And I saw her.

My nomad.

"Tanya, I have to go," I said abruptly. "We can talk about this later."

"Edward, wh—" She was still talking when I pressed the End button and cut her voice off mid-sputter. I dropped the phone to my bed and was standing on my bedroom balcony a second later.

I expected her to run when she saw me, or to at least show some sign of imminent flight, but I was wrong. Happily so. She merely stood there, the same tattered jeans, the same torn sweater. I could see from here the spot where the remnant in my pocket had once been, right on the lower left edge.

My eyes travelled over the tiny shape of her, memorizing what I could, wishing I could see beneath the long hair that obscured her face, hoping for a breeze to stir her scent and carry it towards me. My wishes were in vain. Not a breath of wind crossed the expanse between the trees and our house; and my nomad made no move to show her face more clearly.

I would have to move closer to her.

My right foot lifted fractionally, but dropped almost immediately back to the wooden deck beneath my feet. For the first time, doubts plagued me and indecision rooted me to the spot. I'd searched for this vampire for days, but now that she was standing right in front of me, I was afraid to move. What if I jumped and it spooked her into running off again? But if I stayed here, would she grow tired of waiting and run off anyway?

I had no practical experience at this sort of thing. I had no idea what to do.

 _Go to her, Edward._

I didn't need any more encouragement than that. If my sister had seen no danger in approaching the nomad, I knew it was safe.

Of course, I didn't stop to think that Alice's assurances only involved me physically until I was halfway across the lawn. By that time I'd realized that, though, I was close enough to catch hints of her scent on the softest of breezes that stirred the air between us. Even if Alice had seen me dismembered on the ground, I wouldn't have been able to stop.

"Hello," I said softly when I was still fifty or so yards away. I was approaching at human speed, still leery of scaring her off even though my approach must have seemed almost glacial to someone unaccustomed to melding and mixing with humans.

"Hello," she said in return, her voice still as musical as I remembered, with that hint of hoarseness. She could speak, clearly, but she didn't do it often. I was willing to bet that she'd not spoken since the few words she'd said to me days ago.

She cocked her head to the side when I was about twenty yards away. "Why?" She paused, then added, "following me?"

I was distracted by the question because I'd finally seen movement beneath the curtain of hair. Blinking eyes. My own squinted, trying in vain to see through the thick strands, but her face was still a mystery.

"I was, yes," I said, a sheepish smile raising half of my mouth.

"Why?"

I saw her flinch when only a mere twenty feet separated us, so I stopped my forward motion. I'd been lucky to this point – I didn't want to press that luck.

"I was curious," I answered honestly. "We don't get many single nomads through here." _And none in as bad a shape as you are,_ I thought, but did not say. I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard my mother's thoughts far away in the house behind me, concurring and wanting very much to see to this poor woman's basic needs.

If compassion could be considered an extrasensory ability, my mother had more power than half the vampires in the Northern Hemisphere.

I continued when she didn't respond. "Your trails. You've been through these woods several times now, more than several. The tracks I found were a mixture of very old and very recent. It was another curiosity. Why does this land fascinate you so?"

I saw a movement on her face, the curtain covering it shimmering a little, but she didn't speak. Only the softest sound carried over to me from where she stood. A cross between a gasp and hiss. A word she's almost said then called back unspoken?

"What is it? You can trust me. We don't mean you any harm, I promise you that."

"We?" she asked, her voice a little stronger but there was a tremulous quality that worried me.

"Yes, my family and myself. Certainly you've scented them in the forest as well?"

"F-family? Thought…others. Nomads."

I smiled. "No, you're the only nomad we've seen in quite some time."

"Family," she said again, as if the concept were a foreign one to her.

"Yes, we've been together for nearly a century, some of us. The others not quite as long. Would you like to meet them?"

I got ahead of myself, mistook a few words conversation for genuine progress, and took a step forward, my hand outstretched towards her.

She hissed and dropped immediately into a hunting crouch, body low and poised to spring.

"No!" I shouted it at first, then immediately dropped my voice, and my hand. "Please," I said, my hands upraised in a warding off motion, my feet freezing in place. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. Please, don't run off again."

I didn't recognize the plaintive tone of my own voice. It sounded almost...human? But something of it called to her. The hisses slowed and her back straightened.

When it happened, it happened in slow motion. I relaxed my shoulders and dropped my hands, I thanked her for giving me a second chance…

…and I realized her quick motion had dislodged the near-permanent drape of hair.

I could see her face. It wasn't clear or completely uncovered. But my perfected eyes could finally see through to her face.

Her beautiful face.

My eyes traced over every line and curve, every texture, the fine arch of eyebrows, the cupid's bow lips. Features that venom had perfected, features that I knew had been breathtaking. A face that had stopped me in mid-stride one day months ago when a windstorm had dislodged a poster for a sale at the Thriftway and revealed a long-forgotten poster of a missing girl.

This girl.

"Isabella?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N#1: Standard disclaimer applies, the characters aren't mine, all I own is what they're doing in this story. And a 5 year old Jeep._

My eyes traced over every line and curve, every texture, the fine arch of eyebrows, the cupid's bow lips. Features that venom had perfected, features that I knew had been beautiful even before that. The face that had stopped me in mid-stride one day months ago when a windstorm had dislodged an ad for a sale at the Thriftway to reveal a long-forgotten poster of a missing girl.

This girl.

"Isabella?"

My eyes darted back and forth between her face and her feet, ready for anything. I was terrified that my revelation would spook her as my reaching for her had the last time. I expected her to take off running, but she didn't move; she'd gone to stone right in front of me.

Testing, I took a step forward. She didn't move.

Another step. Nothing.

Her face was the first to crack the stone façade, her head cocking to the side, a furrow growing between her brows.

"Not," she said, her mouth working, the furrow deepening.

Now I was the one confused. I knew the changes venom wreaked on a human face, altering it irrevocably as it changed soft tissue diamond hard. But venom only changed the details not the general structure. The features remained much the same, they had with both Rosalie and Emmett; they had with me.

The nomad's face, though now runway model perfect, had once been the more subtle, classic beauty of a high school junior named Isabella Swan. A girl who had disappeared from this town without a trace eighteen months before we'd decided to call Forks home.

"You're not Isabella?" I asked, watching her carefully, still poised for her to run off.

She shook her head. Then nodded it. Then shook it again. All in the space of a second. If I hadn't been so focused, I might have laughed.

"B-Bella," she said at last, correcting me.

"Bella," I repeated, and then smiled, liking the nickname. If I'd harbored a hope for some sort of reciprocity, it was a vain one. She merely stood there and stared at me without blinking. I felt rather like a slide in Biology lab.

"Are you?"

I waited, not knowing what she was asking. When she didn't continue, I had to clarify.

"Am I what, Bella?" It was ridiculous, the thud in my long-dead chest from just saying her name, but that was something to be worked out later.

She paused, considered me for a long moment, then surprised hell out of me by relaxing away from her statue impersonation completely. "You're not."

I was still confused. It was a wholly novel and decidedly unpleasant feeling. In every other encounter with another vampire, even another human, it had been a simple matter to find out what I needed from their thoughts and react accordingly.

Not so now. And it was frustrating the hell out of me.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't hear a sound from her mind. It was as if she wasn't standing there at all. But Alice had seen her too, told me to go to her, so at least I knew I wasn't crazy.

In that sense, anyway.

"I'm not what, Bella?"

"Him," she said and offered no more than that.

It didn't take long to figure it out, especially with her right hand reaching over to rub at a spot on her left wrist.

"No, Bella, I didn't change you," I said softly, my hands itching to wipe away the crease between arched brows.

"Who?" She asked, almost pleaded. She reached up and pushed the last of her hair from her face. Finally I was able to look fully into her beautiful face. Then she raised her eyes to mine and I nearly had to step backwards.

Her eyes were a deep, ruby red.

I managed, just barely, to stifle the gasp of surprise. Maybe it was my long life with my vegetarian family coupled with our relatively infrequent exposure to nomads, but I'd come to visualize all vampires, not just our family, with gold to black eyes.

Not eyes red from a steady diet of human blood.

Add to that, the poster that had so fascinated me long ago had shown the image of a girl with warm, chocolate brown eyes. Captivating, mesmerizing eyes that promised a world of secrets if you could just get past the wariness in them. I'd spent many nights those first months wondering just what it would take to get through those defenses to the secrets only hinted at in her eyes.

It took me a good bit of time, almost a full half-minute, to reorient myself and keep the shock from showing.

"Who?" She asked again and she was starting to look at me quizzically. I worked even harder to maintain an open, friendly, even sympathetic demeanor.

"I don't know, Bella, it happened before we arrived here." Then I paused, because the question of her turning had brought with it, invariably, the memories of my own transformation. From the sting of the first bite to the last beat of my heart, I remembered it all.

"You don't remember?"

I thought she was going to go rigid again and she did for the blink of a human eye, but then it was over. "No."

That surprised me. For most of us, the transition from mortal to immortal was the strongest memory we retained, and unless we're fanatical like my sister Rose, those moments were the only memories we retained of being human at all.

Yet Bella seemed to remember none of it. Another oddity in an already odd situation.

"How long have you been alone, Bella?"

She blinked at me again and I had my answer without her saying a word. She'd always been alone. Whomever made Bella, left her to her own devices.

Just like Alice.

But unlike Alice, this girl hadn't had visions of her future family to comfort her. Nothing to keep her from giving in to the madness of her new life in those first wild months; instead she'd had nothing but her instincts to guide her. I couldn't help thinking it was a miracle she was even alive.

So lost was I in my musings that I didn't realize Bella had closed the distance between us until she was mere inches from me. I only noticed when I felt her warm fingers on my cheek, just below my right eye.

"Your eyes?" she asked softly. "Why?"

I wondered if dietary choices were the right next step in the conversation, especially as we were still standing at the edge of the forest leading to the house. "It's a bit of a long story." I indicated the house behind me. "Would you like to come back to the house with me? A bit more comfortable setting than standing in the forest."

She looked truly perplexed by that. "Comfortable?" She said the word as if it had no meaning to her. "S'no difference. Here. There. Sit. Stand. Feels the same."

Of course it would to someone who spent her whole existence on the move, only pausing to drink when need and opportunity converged. I was determined to change that.

I smiled and offered my arm in the true gesture of my time. "Trust me?"

And to my utter surprise, she took my arm and did just that.

If I thought taking Bella back to the house would mean some peace and quiet and a chance to talk further without the forest as backdrop, I was painfully mistaken. I might get that eventually, but not for a while yet.

We weren't one foot inside the house when my mother and sister attacked from the sides, clucking over Bella as if she were a foundling baby on the doorstep rather than a nomad vampire who could, and did, take care of herself just fine. I was about to stop them but the daggers Alice glared at me changed my mind.

I knew that I could reattach my arms if she ripped them off, but I wasn't that keen to try it out in practice just then.

Bella shot a wild look at me and I was half-positive she was about to make a run for it again, but then my mother took her hand and squeezed it lightly. That pause was all it took for the world's most compassionate vampire to gain a toehold. The wildness cooled from Bella's expression and her shoulders eased from their tense hunch.

After that it was child's play for Esme to whisk Bella off upstairs.

Alice invariably followed, chattering all the while with introductions and, a brief overview of the Cullen family, mentioning the others as they passed certain rooms. By this time they'd reached the upstairs bath and were shedding her of the tattered remnants she wore. Alice's thoughts went straight to the myriad clothes we had on hand. She was lamenting that none of them would fit Bella properly. Being Alice, that only put her off her stride for a moment. She was looking ahead, with optimism bordering on insanity, to a future of shopping trips staring Bella as a giant dress-up doll.

I knew then I had to get us away, or get my family away, as soon as possible. If anything was going to scare Bella into running off into the forest again, it was that.

I heard everything they said, of course; secrets were an impossibility in this house. Their thoughts and words both came at me as I sat on the sofa waiting. Normally I blocked such chatter out. I'd learned very early that if I didn't learn to filter I would go slowly insane from the noise alone. This time, however, I listened carefully checking for dangers, reactions, and, if I was honest with myself, trying to see if Bella's thoughts were mixed in there somewhere. Anywhere.

They weren't.

My family's reactions were audible to me, though, and as varied and unique as my family members themselves.

Emmett was thinking about matching his strength against a vampire strong with human blood.

Jasper was remembering his own eyes being that deep red, and how they'd come to be that way, the sweetness and satisfaction only human blood could give us. "Jazz," I said softly, and his mind shifted away from that path with a brief thought of thanks sent my way. It'd been fifty years since they'd joined us, but Jasper'd spent two centuries quenching his thirst with humans and was still adjusting to his life of restraint.

But Jasper loved Alice beyond any level of emotional bond that I'd ever seen, even that of my parents, and though he missed our traditional diet, he would gladly hunt elk for the rest of his eternity so long as Alice was by his side.

Rose was. Well, she was Rose and I didn't dwell near her thoughts long. She didn't like the intrusion into our lives, didn't like the danger to our façade with an unpredictable nomad vampire under our roof; but mostly she didn't like that Alice kept cooing about how pretty Bella was as they cleared through the dirty face and matted hair.

As ever, I ignored her. She'd caused her share of unrest when she'd come to live with us, she could endure this for me.

"I haven't seen Esme this happy since you came home to us after your time away," Carlisle said as he joined me in the large room we used as a living area. I snorted at the way he glossed over my years of adolescent rebellion. He made it sound like I'd taken his car out for a joyride, not spent ten years of my own with eyes as red as Bella's.

I cast a worried glance towards the ceiling. I was uneasy about this, about being separated from Bella without knowing what she was thinking. "They're not overwhelming her, are they?"

He laughed. "No more than they ever do. She's fine, Edward, relax." The laughter still showed on his face, but his eyes were suddenly serious.

I focused on his thoughts.

 _You still can't read her mind?_ He asked me.

I shook my head, keeping my answers nonverbal. It was the only way to truly have a private conversation without running far enough away from the enhanced hearing of the other vampires in the house.

 _Have you ever met anyone-?_

I was shaking my head again before he could finish his question. In all the others we'd encountered, I'd never found a mind, human or immortal, that I couldn't penetrate or at least hear to some degree, even Chief Swan's, though muffled... I broke off, my eyes widening.

 _What is it?_

I looked up at the ceiling then back at Carlisle. "Father," I said out loud, trusting him to make the connection.

He did.

 _That's right. You said Chief Swan's mind was like a badly tuned radio. You're thinking it's hereditary?_

I lifted my shoulders. Anything was possible. If the chief's mind was hard to read, could Bella have brought that into her new life as a vampire? Had it always been that way? Unfortunately, all we could do was guess.

Isabella Swan had disappeared over a year before we'd arrived and remembered nothing of her transformation much less her human life before that. We all knew from past experience, unless you worked very hard to retain the memories, your human life became nothing more than half-forgotten dreams. And by all appearances, Bella had done nothing to retain memories of her human life.

 _Edward._

I was taken out of my musings when my sister spoke straight into my mind. I looked towards the ceiling and answered her aloud. "Yes?"

 _Look_.

From the moment they'd started their beauty treatment upstairs, I'd kept my listening solely focused on what Alice was thinking, not seeing. I was gentleman enough to close my mind against the sight of anything I shouldn't be seeing.

But I opened my mind again now, knowing she'd never request that if Bella were still in a vulnerable state.

 _I saw you jumping up and gasping when we came down, scaring her into flight, so I thought I'd let you get over the initial reaction now before you ruined everything._ There was a pause and then an almost illegal level of smug. _And now she's not going to run off. Admit it, you owe me._

I didn't answer her. If her smug got any more pronounced, she'd probably explode from it.

"They're coming down," I told Carlisle when I realized he was staring at me strangely. I didn't elaborate because just as I said the words, they were there at the base of the stairs..

We both stood to greet them and it took locking my jaws together to keep it from dropping down to my chest.

She was, in a word, stunning. She always had been beautiful, but cleaning off the rough edges made her breathtakingly so. Her face, the one that had captivated me at first sigh, was still visible through the perfections her transformation had wrought. Long brown hair, no longer matted, but brushed to a lustrous shine, framed the pale oval of her face, flattering it even further. As if that were even possible. Even the dark red eyes didn't detract from that beauty.

"You must be Bella," Carlisle said, breaking the silence caused by my gaping. "I'm Carlisle. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasure," Bella answered with a little smile, "pleasure's mine."

I was really starting to think I'd gone completely insane. A little smile like that should not have the power to buckle my knees.

While he was greeting Bella with a handshake, his thoughts were turned to me. He didn't smack my head to bring me out of it. Not physically, at least.

 _You're being very rude, Edward. Stop gaping and come over and greet the girl._

Then Alice chimed in. _Don't mess this up. She's seconds away from running off as it is._

Ever supportive, my family.

"Bella," I said softly. "I should apologize for them." I looked at Alice in particular. "I didn't expect that they'd drag you off the second we got home."

"No," Bella said. "Fine." She paused, and then gave her head an almost imperceptible shake. "It's fine."

Esme nodded, beaming a smile. "See? I told you it would come back to you, Bella. You're just out of practice."

Bella rewarded her with a beaming smile and I felt a stab of jealousy towards my own mother.

Maybe I needed therapy.

"Thank you," Bella said, first to Esme, then to Alice. "Didn't realize. How much. Difference," she paused, and then turned to me with a shy smile. "Comfortable."

I could have sworn I felt my heart thud in my chest after over a century's dormancy.

"Well," Carlisle said with the head of the household tone that brooked no argument. "We were about to go off hunting, so we'll leave you both to your morning."

There was a bit of thumping upstairs and the distinct sound of Jasper and Emmett wrestling – I assumed one brother didn't care to leave the house at the moment and the other was convincing him otherwise. Quiet soon followed when Jasper managed to get him outside.

"I'll see you later, Bella," Alice chimed in with a smile.

"It truly was a pleasure meeting you, Bella. You're welcome here anytime," Esme echoed, taking her hand and squeezing it gently.

Alice and Esme then left together, sprinting in the vampire version of a jog towards the forest's edge. After a brief goodbye to Bella, Carlisle followed them.

Bella and I stared at one another as the quiet in the now-vacant house stretched between us. I wouldn't have called it an awkward silence, but it wasn't exactly comfortable either. I smiled at Bella, a little half smile, and she smiled back. That broke the tension.

I walked into the living area and sat down, indicating the sofa opposite me with a wave of my hand. "Would you like to join me?"

Bella eyed the sofa, and then shrugged. "Still. Don't understand." She looked around the house, eyes pausing on the chairs, sofas, even the big television mounted to the wall. "Why."

"Why we live like this?"

Bella nodded, sitting like a statue on the sofa, utterly still. I'd never really noticed before, just how human we all acted even when we weren't in school or around humans. Our camouflage had bled over into our private lives as well. We sat, we shifted, scratched itches we didn't have, fidgeted with things, whatever we could to keep from being too still.

"We take our cues from Carlisle, I suppose. He didn't choose this life, being a vampire I mean, so he does what he can to keep close to the human existence he lost. That means a house, school for us, a regular job for him. The other things? Music, computers, even the television? They help the monotony of immortality."

"Monotony?"

I cocked my head, intrigued. "You don't find it endless? The same traveling every day, no end to the journey?"

Even when I'd taken off and lived apart from Carlisle and Esme in my fit of rebellion, giving in to my baser instincts and living as a true vampire, the endless days and nights had worn on me after a year. I'd missed the company of my new parents, our well-appointed house, the distraction of my piano compositions, playing with the notes and chords until I found a melody that pleased me.

Unfortunately, my stubborn streak had kept me apart from them a further nine years before I had made my way back home again.

Bella was still regarding me curiously.

"You don't then? Find it repetitive? Endless?"

Bella just shrugged. "What else is there?"

"Ah, right," I said, figuring it out. With no memory of her human life, all she knew was what she'd experienced since awakening an immortal. With nothing to compare it to, that endless existence might not be as difficult to endure.

I watched as her cupid's bow mouth opened and closed several times in rapid succession.

"What is it, Bella? You can ask me anything."

She looked at me again, unnerving me with the way she stayed statue-still and stared. After a very long pause, she broke the silence. "Animals?"

"Animals," I confirmed with a smile.

Bella pulled a face. I blinked for a moment at the dour, serious face contorted in such a way. My eyes memorized the way her perfect features twisted, scrunched up in distaste; and my dead heart threatened to beat again. She was...there was no other word that fit…she was adorable.

"Alice told you about that as well?"

"Esme," she corrected, her face still scrunched. "Asked about eyes."

"Did she tell you how that began?"

"Tried," Bella said and then her face smoothed out. "Alice."

I laughed. She didn't need to say more than that. Alice had found the topic boring, and had changed the subject.

I cocked my head to the side. "Would you like to hear it?"

While Bella considered, I called myself every name I could think of. How stupid could I be? Of course she didn't care about my father's history. She'd want to hear about places we'd been, things we'd seen, other nomads we'd met, perhaps—

"Very much," Bella said, jarring me from my self-castigation. I was sure the smile I beamed back at her was the sort madmen wore, but to her credit, she didn't seem to notice…or if she noticed, she didn't care.

I stood and held out my hand to her. "There are pictures upstairs in Carlisle's office that go with the story if you'd like to see them."

Bella stared at my hand as if it was a snake about to rear up and strike her. I dropped it at once. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be pushy."

"No," she said quickly, "my fault. Not used to. Touched."

"I understand." I smiled back at her, hoping that I looked less like an escapee from a mental institution and more like a sympathetic friend. I must have, because despite that fuck up, she was still here. Maybe, just maybe, this had a chance of working out.

I let her precede me to the stairs, but my attention was diverted by a buzzing somewhere on the second floor. My room…my cell phone. I sighed, not wanting to deal with Tanya again today, and returned my focus to infinitely more pleasant things. Next time, I'd just put the phone on silent instead of vibrate.

"I think you're going to like this," I said, referring to the vivid paintings on the wall that depicted Carlisle's nearly four centuries of life.

For some reason, Bella stiffened beside me, foot on the first step. I sensed the difference in her, heard the small gasp and acted out of a habit ingrained through a hundred years of life. My hand shot out to grasp her upper arm, in a show of both comfort and support.

"Bella, wh—"

I didn't get much more than that.

With force I'd never expect from a non-seasoned fighter, Bella pushed away from me and darted across the room at her full speed.

"No."

"Bella," I said in my calmest voice. "Bella, I'm sorry. Please. It was just instinct, an accident. I felt you get upset and…please don't lea—"

But it was too late. She was already gone.

"Fuck," I cursed softly to the empty room, running both hands through my unruly hair in a rare fit of frustration. "Brilliant, Edward. Truly brilliant."

The buzzing started upstairs again and, with nothing better to do with my foul mood, I ran upstairs to answer it. Hoping to spew a little acid Tanya's way to ease my own self-loathing for being such an idiot.

It wasn't Tanya calling, however.

"You really should keep your phone with you all the time, Edward. Especially if you're going to be stupid," Alice said by way of greeting. "What good is it for me to see things if I can't tell you about them in time enough to make a difference?"

"Hello to you too, Alice." I spat the words at her.

"So, she's run off again. Lovely. Thanks so much, Edward."

"You think I did this on purpose?"

She gave a long-suffering sigh. "No, of course you didn't. And I know you're devastated, I can hear it in your voice. You haven't been this angry since," she paused, "well, I've never seen this side of you to be honest."

I didn't really want to talk about my infinite levels of stupidity, so I changed the subject instead. "Are you guys coming back for school?"

"We should be, yes," Alice sighed. "No reason for us to stay out here if Bella's gone."

"All right then, I'll wait for you to—"

I broke off when a knock sounded at the door.

My heart leapt. Could she be back already? Maybe she just freaked out? Needed a moment?

"See you soon, Alice," I said hastily and dropped the phone into my pocket before running back down the stairs to the front door. I pulled it open so hard I damaged two of the three hinges.

But my welcoming smile fell straight off my face when I saw who was waiting on the other side, and no amount of manners could keep the shock from showing.

"Jake?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N: Second verse, same as the first – The characters belong to SMeyer, what they do in this story is allll mine_

My breath caught. Could she be back already? Maybe she just panicked? Needed a moment?

"See you soon, Alice," I said hastily and dropped the phone into my pocket before running back down the stairs to the front door. I pulled it open so hard I damaged two of the three hinges.

But my welcoming smile fell straight off my face when I saw who was waiting on the other side, and no amount of manners could keep the shock from showing.

"Jake?"

My jaw was in danger of coming unhinged. Not only was the Quileute alpha on my front doorstep, he was here alone…and he was here human.

"This is, ah, a surprise," I said, thinking I'd never uttered a bigger understatement in my long life. "What do I owe the...honor?"

Jake scowled. He took a deep breath, just managing to keep from showing his nausea over the act. Then his eyes met mine straight on and I gasped. The last time I'd seen that level of intensity on his face...no, I'd never seen anything like this.

"Where is she, bloodsucker?"

I gaped again, utterly lost. "She? What are you talking about? You're looking for...Alice? Esme?" I laughed. "I know you're not looking for Rosalie."

But Jake apparently wasn't in the mood for laughing. He was, as ever, all business.

"Where's Bella?"

Whatever controls he'd managed over his thoughts disappeared when he said her name. His mind became a whirlwind of memories. A little girl with long, brown pigtails maturing through the years in a blur of images, not slowing until her face matched the one I knew. Then they became more steady images of her: laughing on a front porch swing, walking on the beach, falling into a tidal pool…laying in the hospital, then finally the memories of his frantic search through the forest.

And what he found there.

The devastation in his thoughts was unlike anything I'd felt since Rosalie's awakening. I had to work to shed the lingering feel of his heartbreak. It wanted to cling to me like spider webs, pulling at me and dragging me down into his grief. I focused on the last thought – the reason behind the pain – to keep that from happening.

"You knew," I said, breaking the silence at last.

"Of course I knew," Jake snapped.

"But you never found her?" The doubt was, I'm sure, all over my face as well as in my tone.

"No, I didn't," he said, back straightening in defiance almost out of habit, "because I stopped looking."

I cocked my head to the side, hearing the thoughts almost shouted at me. Maybe it was easier for him to think them rather than give them voice. I didn't care; I was too eager for information to quibble about how I obtained it.

 _I'd only just phased for the first time; Billy and old Quil's words fresh in my mind, you know? But I knew what I knew, what I'd been told, and what my purpose was. Bella'd been taken and turned by the vampires we'd had crawling through the area. The same vampires that had triggered the gene and caused my transformation._

There was a pause, a blank spot in his thoughts. Then, after a shudering breath, he continued.

 _And I knew if I found her, I'd have no choice but to kill her._

I understood.

Like his great grandfather before him, Jake took his duty as Quileute protector very seriously. Maybe even more so. Carlisle thought, as I did, that if it hadn't been for the precedent set by Ephraim Black years before, Jake might well have slaughtered us where we stood rather than make any sort of peace treaty.

"Understandable," I said after a long pause.

"So where is she?"

I laughed. "Right. Because I'm going to tell you so you can rip her to pieces now?"

"Do you really think I'd do that?"

I didn't hesitate. "If you thought your people were in danger? Yes, I do. Just as you would have done then. Bella's a vampire, Jake, in the truest sense. Truer even than my family and myself. She has red eyes and exists via a steady diet of humans. You need to divorce yourself from the idea that this is your childhood friend. Completely. That Bella is gone. She was gone from the moment the venom entered her system."

Jake winced.

"Better accept that one straight away, before you take one step further down this path."

He stood before me, silent and stoic. I could almost watch the wheels turning in his head as he worked through the new information.

"One more thing you need to consider. She has, from what I can tell, no memories of her human life. As far as she knows, she woke up a vampire and that's where her life began."

"But surely she..." I could feel it practically radiating from him, the further devastation that nothing of their friendship remained within Bella. That he was the sole keeper of those memories.

"Don't feel too badly about it," I said, and would later wonder why I felt the need to comfort a shape-shifting wolf who would, under different circumstances rip my body to pieces, burn them, and then dance on the ashes.

"We all lose our human memories after awhile, it's just another part of the change."

"After a while," he repeated and I heard the hope in his tone.

"It's been, what, two years now?"

"About that," he agreed, grudgingly.

"I really doubt it. I'm sorry. I have a few memories of my mother, but only because Carlisle helped me remember. Jasper and Rosalie have a few as well, because they worked so hard to keep them in the first few days after their transformations were complete. Bella had no such help, no one to tell the stories to, and, I'm guessing, no one told her that she'd need to work to remember them."

"What d'you mean?"

"I mean if she woke up alone, and she says she did, then whomever made her abandoned her soon afterwards. Whatever Bella is now, she's become on instinct alone. The fact she's still alive is a near miracle."

Jake still looked confused. I explained newborn madness, the near-reckless behavior we all showed in the first year; all of our time spent consumed with thirst, our lives ruled by it and rarely stopping if anything got in our way, and the unprecedented strength at our disposal if anyone was stupid enough to try. And the role our fathers or mothers took, guiding us through that crazy time, seeing that we did nothing to betray our existence or leave evidence behind.

"Many of your unsolved homicides can be laid at the feet of newborn vampires run amok."

"That's bullshit," Jake scoffed. "If that were true, there'd be more of them, whole areas of unsolved murder, serial killings, that sort of thing. It would've made the news at least."

I smiled. "You're thinking of us in relation to yourself and your eating habits. We don't need to but once a week, give or take a few days, sometimes longer. Newborns perhaps every two days on rough average. There are some that gorge, yes, but they're the exception. Given our speed, a nomad could be in another state when the next bout of thirst hit."

"And the ones that gorge?"

Trust Jake to narrow in on that one little bit of information. "They're taken care of," I answered simply.

"How?"

I merely looked at Jake.

He scowled. "Right, I get it. Some big leech secret. Like I really care about any of this."

I watched the bravado slip back into place, hear him tell himself repeatedly he didn't care, that he'd already buried her in his mind. The Bella he knew was dead.

I winced away from the pain that lanced through every part of the man in front of me at that thought. He'd apparently been under the impression that he'd accepted her death long ago, but was only now finding how raw the wounds still were.

"Was there anything else?" I said, sensing his need to get away from here as soon as possible and giving him the out he needed.

"No, that's it. Just make sure sh- make sure it remembers to stay off our lands. Better yet, get it the hell away from here. Our treaty extends to the Cullen family only. Visiting leeches aren't mentioned. That makes them fair game."

Without another word, Jake turned and stalked down the porch steps. His body was already vibrating so hard, he didn't make it to the safety of the trees. Instead, he shook into wolf form right before my eyes, shredding the gym shorts he wore into tatters.

The second he was in wolf form his thoughts filled with the running forest and I realized I was right the last time we'd met. He wasn't just hiding things from my mind. Jake had come here in human form for one reason only…to keep these thoughts from the rest of his pack. However close they were, Jake hadn't told his packmates that his former best friend was a vampire.

Whether to protect her, or protect himself, I didn't know.

"Tell me again, why we're here? Didn't you do enough of this back when you first...when you first found out about her?"

I snorted a laugh, because we'd both known she'd changed her mind halfway through and not mentioned my former obsession with the human girl. Out of contrariness alone, I didn't answer that part. Besides, I didn't need to.

We both know I had.

"That was different. This time I'm looking for something specific."

"What?"

I paused, looked around. "I don't know." I finally admitted.

"Well, that clears that up, thanks," Alice said, dropping onto a chair. Her movement dislodged one of two braces set against the wall.

We both stopped, listened, then carried on our whispered conversation.

We were in Bella's room, the second of two bedrooms in Chief Swan's modest house. It had been two years at least since Bella's disappearance but this room, apart from the dust, looked just the same as it had that day. Her backpack was still hanging off the chair, math homework still on her desk.

She'd gotten the all the problems right, save the last one.

I'd spend entirely too much time wondering if the reason the eraser was left pointing towards the problem was because she was about to correct her mistake.

I really did need therapy.

I turned to look at Alice when she put the brace back up. She was staring at the device, a cane with an arm cuff and hand bar, curiously. Carlisle had told me it was used not to bear the weight of the person using them, like typical crutches, but used as support instead.

With what I knew of her injuries, that made sense.

"What happened to her?"

"Alice," I sighed, "I told you this, back when I first found it out." And find out I had, eavesdropping on the thoughts of those around me when I'd surreptitiously get the poster in front of them in an attempt to steer their thoughts towards Bella.

She smiled, unapologetic. "I didn't listen, though, did I? I mean, honestly, Edward, you went on and on about it some human girl who'd disappeared over a year beforehand. Much as I hate to say it, none of us were really enthralled by it. But we'd never seen you so excited about anything before, so we..." She stopped, shrugged.

"Pretended to be interested until I shut up about it?"

"Something like that," she said easily. "Oh don't get all offended. You know you did the same thing when that HBO special on the Civil War came out and Jasper went into spasms over it."

I had no defense; she was right. The two weeks that show aired were a small nightmare for all of us as Jasper ranted and raved about facts they got wrong. And, let's face it, if Carlisle ever got wind the BBC was doing another historical series on the Restoration, we would all develop urgent needs to be elsewhere until it was over.

"So," Alice prompted, "what happened to her?"

"She was hit by a car not a month after arriving here to live with her father."

"Really?"

I nodded. "A freak thing, by all accounts. Another student's car hit a patch of ice and spun out in the parking lot of the high school, pinned her between it and her own truck. She broke both of her legs, but she was lucky to not have suffer worse, luckier still to be alive after that. She spent a week in the hospital, then a month in a wheelchair. She'd only had the casts off and been back on her legs, using the braces, for a month when she disappeared."

Alice's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, her skepticism clear. "And people really believe she ran away from home? Without her braces?"

"Honestly? Most of them don't know what to think. There were some thought she'd run off and eloped because there was another disappearance around the same time," I said, then paused, because the very idea still left a bad taste in my mouth. "But that was debunked when Jake came home alone with no Bella and without a clue where she was."

Alice's nose wrinkled. "Bella and the puppy? No way."

I nodded my head hard enough to rattle my teeth in full agreement with that sentiment. No matter Jake's pain at losing Bella, I couldn't see them together.

But my conclusions might not have been altogether unbiased.

"Not arguing the point with you, but that was the initial assumption. Jake had helped Bella with her rehabilitation, they'd been close friends since she moved here and knew each other when they were kids, too. In a lot of minds around here, it made sense. But when Jake came back alone, everyone shifted gears and the search reintensified. By then, though, any possible trail was cold and eventually, even the Chief stopped looking."

"All right, so that's what the town thinks," Alice said, eyes travelling over the varied photos around the room, several showing a much smaller Jacob than the one we knew. "What do you think?"

I raised an eyebrow and snorted. "I think she became a vampire, Alice," I said, sarcasm dripping from my words.

"Ha, ha, ha," Alice said, rolling her eyes at me. "You know that's not what I meant. I meant how do you think the change happened? Who turned her?"

"Of that, I have no idea, unfortunately. All I have to go on is old newspapers, and all I got from those is that it was a bad spring for hikers on the Olympic Peninsula. Four of them disappeared over the two months leading up to Bella's disappearance. Spring was also bad on the people of Port Angeles and Bremerton as well, but nothing sensational enough to raise any media or law enforcement flags. No one ever connected the dots."

Alice nodded. "All right, so it was a nomad, but why so many around one area? They don't usually center around one place like this. Why stay so central? And for so long?"

I only had one answer to that. I picked Bella's pillow up off the unmade bed and handed it to Alice. "If this is the scent that remains after two years dormancy, can you imagine the potency when she was a living, breathing human?"

Skeptical, Alice pressed her nose to the pillow and inhaled, I could see the way her shoulders jolted, but I could also hear her thoughts and knew from them that venom was pooling in her mouth.

"I see it isn't just me," I said, rather grateful that my sister had a similar reaction to mine the first time I was here, surrounded by Bella's scent. But it had only been a few months since she'd disappeared then and the scent had been much stronger; it had brought me to my knees. My eyes automatically went to the spot just below her desk chair were a small drop of her blood had once rested.

A drop of blood that had caused an immediate and overpowering thirst so strong I'd had to leave the house for fear of attacking Chief Swan where he slept simply to slake my need. I was very thankful after that night that I had never come across Bella while she was human. No matter my commitment to Carlisle's lifestyle, I didn't think anyone was strong enough to withstand a scent that strong.

Alice tossed the pillow away from herself and I watched her swallow down the venom before putting the pillow in its proper place on Bella's bed.

"Adding it all up, that means there was a nomad vampire or vampires here two years ago that stayed long enough to thin the population a bit and then take off with Bella…why? I mean, if they'd killed all along, and all around the area, why not kill Bella too? With a blood scent that strong, I can't imagine whoever this was resisting for long."

"That's the part I haven't been able to figure out," I conceded. "It's why I stopped my search last year, because it was starting to consume me, searching for answers I had no way of recovering."

Alice was no fool. "So now we're back in her bedroom, because you're, what, trying to find something to trigger long-forgotten human memories that may or may not give you those answers?"

I winced. "It sounds almost Machiavellian when you put it that way."

"Right, because you've always been known for your altruism, haven't you?"

I laughed. "All right, it is Machiavellian, but I'm also doing it for Bella," I said and then reached over to touch the tip of Alice's nose. "I know what it's like to see someone struggle with trying to determine just who, or what, they are."

Alice's head shook. I could hear the determination in her voice as well as her thoughts. "I know who I am, Edward. Knowing if I wore pinafores with matching ribbons in my pigtails won't change a thing about that."

"I know, but if you'd had a chance, a known place to go for answers about who you'd been, can you honestly tell me you wouldn't have gone?"

The room fell silent and that was answer enough.

The next few days passed much the same as the past few years.

With one notable exception.

For the past years, even decades, my life had been an endless loop of home and school, broken only by the occasional move every few years to keep ahead of the suspicion. Nothing changed, really, even in a new town. It was more of the same everywhere.

But there was something new for me now. As the sun set each night, anticipation would fill me. I'd spend hours running through the forest near our house, hunting close to home rather than following my family off on a trip into Canada. With anticipation came letdown, however, when the sun would rise each morning on another night spent with no sign of Bella.

I refused to let that disappointment eat at me, though. She had come before, she would come back again. She just needed time. I needed to be patient.

I was starting to really hate that word.

"We're going to Rainer tonight," Emmet said on the ride back towards the house. "You're coming, right? Long weekend? Nothing more pressing than hunting up a mountain lion or two?"

I let my silence answer.

Emmet groaned. "You're not serious? You're going to stick to mule deer with the prospect of a meat-eater on the horizon? Just because some nomad _might_ stop by?"

Again, I kept silent. After all, what could I say? He was right and it was stupid, but I—

"What the hell?" Jasper's exclamation stopped and I raised my eyes. I'd just opened my mind to his, probing his thoughts to see what had startled him, when I saw...

I was out of the car before either of my brothers could stop me.

"Subtle, kid. Real subtle."

I ignored him, and the laughter that followed. I was too busy keeping myself from running full speed the short distance from the car to the front steps.

Where Bella sat, still in the clothes Alice had given her when she was here before.

Alice. Now I knew why she had insisted we take separate cars today, as well as her "impulse" shopping trip to Portland with Rosalie.

I should have known better than to trust anything Alice did to not have a hidden agenda, but I'd concentrate on that later. Much later.

"Hello," I said when I came to a stop in front of her, thankful my brothers had foregone more teasing to head straight into the house.

"Hi," she said back, smiling shyly at me. A long, silent pause followed as my eyes travelled over her face like a man lost in the desert regards an oasis.

"Shouldn't. Have run," Bella said at last. "Sorry."

"No, it was my fault. You'd no sooner told me that you didn't like to be touched and I took hold of your arm. That one's totally on me."

"No," she said, starting to protest again.

"Oh for God's sake, you both were idiots about it. Move on or you'll be apologizing until next week."

I growled in the general direction of the second floor, but he was too busy being proud of his own wit to care. He'd had his say and was now intent on leaving me to my idiocy and whipping Jasper's behind at Call of Duty 3. Again.

"He. Charming," Bella said. I felt the oddest fluttering, not quite in my stomach, not quite in my chest, when she favored me with another shy smile. Like my long-dead heart was struggling itself back to life. It took me a minute to figure out why I couldn't speak before realizing that I needed to breathe first.

I took a deep breath, storing oxygen in case I forgot again.

"Isn't he, though? Charming and sensitive and…"

"Ha! See? That's how it's done, son. Knocked your ass straight to the fucking ground. Who's the ma—" The rest was drown out by the unmistakeable sound of a scuffle. Esme's voice followed, calling out dire consequences if they broke the furniture again. There was a silent pause, a few muffled laughs before the game resumed.

Bella laughed, a high, sweet sound that left my mind reeling. I tried to compare the sound to others I'd heard; a bell choir in perfect tune, a symphony of violins playing Vivaldi's _Four Seasons_ , the arias of Mozart and Puccini. All close, but not quite. In fact, in my opinion, gifted musicians the world over could work their whole lives and never come close to the music of her simple laugh.

This time I knew I was biased. And I didn't give a damn.

I knew something else as well. I didn't want an audience, and a constant critique of every word I said from my brothers or the contented humming from my mother, interrupting us.

While I had no practical experience with courting, neither as a human or as a vampire, I'd seen my share of films and read thousands of books that had some form of courtship intertwined in the story. Enough to at least have a guidepost along the new road I was travelling now. It was almost childish, in a way, to be taking my cues from books and films, but the old adage about beggars and choosers had been around awhile for a reason.

I had to take what I had available.

"Would you like to take a walk with me?" I asked, a bit hesitant.

Bella stood and smiled again, laying her hand gently on my arm and raising her crimson eyes to mine. "Yes."

We both ignored the chorus of "awwww" from the upstairs game room as we headed out together into the forest.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N#1 – Standard disclaimer applies – the characters belong to SMeyer, what they do in this story belongs to me_

"Would you like to take a walk with me?" I asked, a bit hesitant. I had no practical knowledge to go on in the ways of courting. My family had all found their mates with little in the way of courtship. And Tanya had…no, I wasn't going to think about Tanya now.

I'd seen my share of films and read thousands of books, enough to at least have a guidepost along the new road I was travelling now.

Bella stood and smiled again, laying her hand gently on my arm and raising her crimson eyes to mine. "Yes."

We both ignored the chorus of "awwww" from the upstairs game room as we headed out together into the forest.

"Family," Bella said as we pushed through the bracken, walking at our normal pace (a steady jog for a human), "love you."

"Very much," I agreed without hesitation, "as much as I love them, annoying though they are."

"Together. Long time. Esme said," she responded.

I watched her face while she spoke, expecting to see the effort of concentration on her face, but it wasn't there.

"It's getting easier for you?" I asked. "Talking?"

"Little. Practicing," she admitted and her sheepish little smile.

I felt that smile all the way to my toes.

"Practicing?" I teased. "On whom?"

The little smile grew, turning up the corners of her mouth. "Trees," she said and I knew for a fact that had she been human there would have been a blush on her cheeks just by the look on her face. "Talked. Trees. Animals. Run away."

I nodded because that was true of all of us. No warm blooded animal with its senses intact would stay near enough to any of us for long enough to provide any help.

"Listened, too," Bella continued. She still had the blush-face but she sounded a little more confident.

At least she did until I stopped dead in my tracks. If Bella had been close enough to humans to listen to them…? I tried to look deeper into her eyes without appearing to, checking to see if they were a brighter red than they'd been last time I saw her. I couldn't tell.

"Listened to what?" I asked tentatively.

Bella didn't seem to notice my concern, or the tension in my voice. For this I was very, very glad.

"Television," she said simply.

My eyes widened. "Television...how?"

She smiled again. "Some houses. Loud enough."

I relaxed, but only slightly. It sounded as though she'd only been close enough to humans to hear their televisions, and that made sense. We'd have heard if there was a house full of dead bodies found anywhere near here.

"It's coming. Easier," she replied and there was a tentative note to her voice that had me looking up. Bella was smiling shyly, her ruby eyes looking up at me through the soft curtain of hair. Almost as if she was seeking my approval.

I quickly smoothed any evidence of a frown off my face and rewarded that searching look with a smile of my own.

"It will come even easier, the more you use it," I answered her.

"You? Too? "

I thought of my struggle to get a handle on human emotions I'd not felt in decades and smiled back at her. "Something like it, yes."

I sensed a turn in the direction we were walking, more towards the reservation than away from it, and gently guided us more northward, towards the cliffs. Bella didn't appear to notice.

"You. Carlisle." She stopped and shook her head, holding up a hand to still my words. I had been about to finish out the thought for her.

She looked up and looked up at me with her face full of excited determination. "You...were...tell me...about...Carlisle. Before."

I smiled back. "Before you were spooked by an oaf of a male vampire?"

Bella laughed, happiness shining from every part of her and shook her head. "Before ran off. Coward."

I stopped then and turned to look at her. "Not a coward, Bella. Never that. It takes strength and courage to wake up to this life alone, and not go insane from it the sheer onslaught of images and emotions, the changes and the thirst. And you did that. You survived your first year alone, and that's nothing short of miraculous."

A shudder went through her body and I had to almost lock my body down to keep from pulling her into my arms. I couldn't even imagine what she was remembering. I had had Carlisle sitting next to me, holding my hand, talking me through my transformation, there to help me when my new eyes opened.

But I'd learned that lesson. Instead I stayed statue-still, waiting.

I'd been expecting the shudders to continue. I hadn't expected the smile to return. Whatever traumas surrounded her transformation, she wasn't remembering them now.

"Not. Exactly alone," she replied, and another smile brightened her face.

A smile not for me but for someone else.

I felt a stab through my chest as though a lesser character in a Hollywood horror film, run through with a wooden stake. It took me a few seconds to center in on the radiating anger, confusion, and the bitter taste in the back of my mouth. There was a clench in my stomach and my teeth felt almost fused together as my jaws clenched. I wanted to find the person responsible for it and separate them from their limbs one by one.

I stopped, almost gasped, surprised at the depth of my own rancor for this unknown person. So surprised, it took me a moment to name the reason for it.

Jealousy.

A human emotion I'd seen portrayed in films, read in novels, seen performed on stage but never felt before in my life, human or immortal.

All things equal, I preferred reading of it to this distasteful feeling. It took every bit of my strength to open my mouth and keep my voice neutral.

"Someone helped you?"

Bella was still smiling. "Vampire. Garrett. Passing through. Stayed with me, a day? A week?" She said the last as a question and I could understand it. In the early days, time's passage was harder to get a handle on when you no longer slept.

A shadow passed over her face and my protective instincts kicked in almost immediately. I tensed as if he was standing right behind her with a lit torch meant to burn her to cinders.

"Did he hurt you?" I blurted out.

But Bella was shaking her head. "No. Just," she stopped speaking and shook her head slightly. "He just left, time to move on."

I knew there was more to it than that, the frown creasing her brows proved it, but without being privy to her thoughts I couldn't see clearer than what I could read on her face.

Not wanting to risk her own pre-emptive moving on, I didn't push the subject. With any luck, she'd eventually open up enough to tell me.

Or even stay around long enough for me to ask again.

We covered about a quarter of a mile in silence, my mind tripping over itself as it struggled to put the questions aside as well as come to grips with one of the more destructive human emotions and conquer it before it could force me into fucking things up completely.

Bella broke through those thoughts, reaching over to touch my arm. "Edward?"

I felt a stab like a bolt of lightning run me through, both from the touch and from the use of my name. I turned towards her and called myself several names, most of which were highly inventive and extremely vulgar. In my own sulking over some encounter a year or more ago, I had taken the smile from her eyes.

I really was an ass sometimes.

"Carlisle," I said with a smile, a true one that went all the way to my eyes."I was telling you about Carlisle."

And the smile she gifted me with in return made me feel as if taking flight was not only possible, but impending.

We walked for hours through the forests of the Olympic peninsula. I told Bella the story of Carlisle's transformation and his sojourns around Europe and with the Volturi. I was grateful that she knew about them; it told me that this Garrett, whomever he was, knew enough to truly explain the rules to Bella. It was, without doubt, the reason she was still alive.

I told her of Carlisle's decision to come to the New World in search of a companion, someone with a compassion to match his own and, on finding none, his decision to create one. I watched her carefully for any reaction when I told her what I remembered (what I'd been told) about my human life just prior to my turning.

Bella was an active participant in the conversation, not content to merely listen as I rambled. She stopped me occasionally to clarify a point, to ask for more detail about Italy, about anything she didn't understand or wanted to know more about. I felt an almost smug smile break out over my face when she wanted every detail I knew about my life and transformation.

I wondered idly if she'd been this inquisitive as a student, or if her natural curiosity had just intensified when she'd changed from mortal to immortal.

She was also interested in my family, in what had brought us all together. I told her brief histories of each of my family members, not delving into the more specific, and personal, aspects of their lives. My ability, seeing into their minds and thoughts, left me privy to information they'd never shared in words. Because of that, I was careful with what I told others, and more so with what I told Bella. I hoped, maybe foolishly, that she would stay long enough to find out more from each of them herself.

As we walked, and talked, I noticed Bella's speech slowly move from disjointed and broken to a more natural, flowing dialogue. I wasn't sure if Bella had fully noticed or not, but she didn't seem to. Just as with any other re-learned ability, when it came back to you fully, it was as if it had never been gone.

She also seemed to have grown more comfortable with me in another sense. Halfway through our walk, Bella's hand had slipped into mine. And stayed there.

"And you have all been together for years? Decades? And never a fight or separation?" Bella was asking as we walked along the cliff path, the Pacific Ocean crashing in waves 50 feet below us.

"I wouldn't go that far," I smiled. "Sometimes Rosalie and Emmett will go off on their own, pretending to be in college. Sometimes Jasper and Alice as well. It all depends on how long we stay in an area; how young we pretend to be when we arrive." I didn't mention my own rebellious storming off – it wasn't the proudest moment of my life.

Bella's nose wrinkled. "That's what I can't understand, Edward. You've all of eternity, why would you choose to spend it bored beyond bearing in a high school classroom, surrounded by," she stopped as a shiver ran over her and her eyes raised to mine. "Humans."

I had thought she was just finishing her thought, but then the wind shifted. And I smelled it.

Human.

My hand tightened on hers, but it was for naught. Her slight fingers had twisted in my grip before I could get a good hold and she was free. I was fast, but a diet of human blood kept Bella just that much stronger than me; strong enough to break my grip and run towards the scent.

Not a full second passed before I was running after her, jumping over obstacles in an attempt to get ahead. Within the space of a minute I'd gained ground on her, and not a moment too soon. I knew the human was close.

I swung around through bracken, ripping clear through my shirt in the process, and put myself square in Bella's path, causing her to stop dead in her tracks. I'd been prepared for that. What I hadn't been prepared for was for her to drop into a hunting crouch and glare at me with a deep, almost purr of a snarl issuing from her lips.

Logically I knew any vampire, even my father and mother, brothers and sisters, would have behaved this way if threatened mid-hunt. We were predators, after all, and a predator on the hunt was an animal not to be disturbed.

Knowing it and seeing it were two very different things.

"Bella, stop, you can't," I managed to say, my hand outstretched towards her.

"Move," she snarled. "Mine."

"I'm not fighting you, Bella, just stopping this hunt. You can't kill a human, Bella. Not here. The wolves..."

I didn't get any further than that. Bella feinted left, then right, then came straight at me, hand outstretched. Her fingers touched my chest and I heard it again, the same scream, verbal and mental. It hardly seemed possible, but it was stronger this time. Nearly knocking me to my feet from its force. A surge from her heightened hunting state perhaps? Possible.

But the hows didn't matter. What mattered was that Bella had slipped past me.

And by the time I caught up with her, it was too late for the human.

* * *

"What do you expect, Edward? That she'd meet you and all of the sudden, elk would seem appetizing?"

I scowled, mostly because there was a part of me that had thought just that.

"You did," I said, a bit petulantly, "when you met Alice."

"I'd had nearly a century behind me and a great displeasure with my life, Edward, you know that. As well as the depression that came from feeling the emotions of my victims as I drained them. I was ready, looking not only for Alice but looking for something else. Bella...isn't."

It didn't take a mind reader to feel a burst of envy from Jasper.

No matter what he said about his depression over taking human lives for blood, he still fought the cravings for it.

Alice, who was finishing draping the human's clothes on a shrub near the cliff face, looked over at him then at me. "Are we about finished here then?" I could hear from her thoughts that she wanted the conversation, and especially Jasper, well away from here. It wasn't strong, but there was a lingering scent of human blood, a stain on the man's shirt from Bella's initial attack.

It wasn't much, but it was enough.

"I think so, yes," I said, taking another look around while keeping my mind on Jasper's thoughts.

By the time I'd reached Bella and the human, the man had been dead in her arms, drained almost dry if the paleness of his skin was any indication.

And the look Bella had given me… Her eyes bright red, a single trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth, and shame in every line of her face would have broken my heart, figuratively if not literally, if mine worked that way.

She'd turned and run before I could blink.

Every instinct told me to run after her, but one thought rose within me that kept my feet rooted to the ground.

Jake.

The wolves, Jake in particular, would not sit idly by if evidence of a hunting vampire reached them. No matter Jake's familial feelings towards the human Bella, he'd made it clear that those feelings didn't translate to what she was now.

I didn't want to test it far enough to see if it was bluff and bluster or truth.

Besides, even if Jake tried to turn a blind eye, his pack mates surely wouldn't.

So I'd called my father, told him what had happened, and he'd sent Jasper and Alice out to help me stage a scene. We'd stripped the human of his clothing down to boxers and draped those clothes on a shrub near the cliff face a hundred feet from his campsite and tumbled his body off the cliff.

With any luck, the evidence would point to death by misadventure, a cliff diving accident gone wrong. It wasn't a common occurrence, but it wasn't unprecedented either.

And as much as it bothered my conscience to be covering for Bella's actions, I knew I had no other choice. Because the urge to protect her was slowly becoming stronger than any other instinct I'd had, including the near-constant thirst I'd endured for nearly a century.

With a sigh, not even wanting to think about what that meant, I surveyed our work and, seeing nothing out of place, nodded to my brother and sister.

"We're finished," I announced. "Let's go home."

Jasper stopped me with a hand to my shoulder before I could start the run home. "What are you going to do, when she comes back?"

I snorted. "You sound so certain that she will," I bit back, skepticism clear in my voice.

Jasper smiled and I felt like hitting him. "She always does, doesn't she? She's as drawn to you as you are to her, little brother. I only got a second or so of her emotions when she turned up at the house earlier, but it was enough to see _that_ clearly." He squeezed the hand on my shoulder before releasing it. "So I'd be thinking of what you're going to say when she comes back, not if."

A second later, Alice and Jasper were running well ahead of me, clearly anxious to have this task behind them. It didn't occur to me at the time to question why Alice, had been so quiet, both in voice and in her thoughts.

Instead I followed their path more slowly, doing as Jasper suggested and thinking of what I would do if Bella turned back up again. I wasn't foolishly optimistic enough to consider her return a definite thing.

My thoughts turned over and over in my mind, accepting and abandoning each thought as quickly as they came.

I'd once thought myself in love with the human girl that had disappeared, or at least in love with the idea of her...of the young girl, victim of a tragic accident, disappeared in the forest without trace. Maybe it was the courtly era in which I'd come of age, but the idea of becoming Bella's protector, her rescuer, had greatly appealed to me.

And now I was in the reality of meeting Bella and it was far from the fantasy that had so obsessed me.

Bella did not need a protector.

She didn't need a rescuer.

She was no victim.

She was a vampire, strong with it, and more than capable of taking care of herself.

She didn't need me at all. She was content in her immortality.

Could I learn to accept the dietary choices she'd made the same as I'd expected her to accept mine?

Before I could answer, my sister's thought broke through my internal debate. I hadn't realized I was already so close to the house and in range of her thoughts.

 _Edward. Look up_.

I did as she said without question and raised my head.

Bella was sitting on the front steps of my house, looking down the drive towards me.

"Bella," I said so softly it was more breath than speech.

"Edward," she replied in the same soft tone.

A beat later she'd stood and crossed the hundred or so yards separating us.

"I'm sorry," she said, shame and remorse fairly dripping from the two small words; her face showing both just as clearly.

Before I could ask, before I could move, Bella took a step forward. Just one step that covered so much more than distance; one step that changed everything.

Then Bella was in my arms, her own slim arms coming around my waist, her cheek pressed to my chest.

And in that instant, it didn't matter. Nothing mattered. There was just Bella. I held her, she held me, we became one unit, one person, still as stone in our embrace but warm together as we never could be apart. We held each other as my body and soul shifted, changed, thawed and reformed until a new Edward was forged – one that loved the vampire in his arms and would until his own existence ended.

I couldn't hear her thoughts; I had no way of knowing if the changes I experienced were going through Bella as well, but she didn't move from my arms, didn't do anything but move closer as my hand broke the statue-stillness to follow the curve of her spine.

"It's all right," I said in a hushed voice when I regained the power of speech.

"It's not," she disagreed, "I attacked you, snarled at you, I...that man. I couldn't stop myself."

That confused me and I pulled back a little, trying to see her face. As I'd reminded myself several times on the walk back, Bella was a vampire in the truest sense. Why would she have tried to stop? "Did you want to?"

She nodded, sheepish. "It. It seemed rude, since you…don't. I didn't want to cause trouble."

There was more behind her words, and for once, I couldn't get a read from her face, but I knew with certainty that had she been human, her face would have registered a pink tinge to her cheeks.

Was Bella...lying?

"Will you show me?"

It took a few seconds to stop my brain trying to find the lie in what she'd said and focus on what she'd asked, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she meant.

"Show you what?"

Bella pulled back then and looked up into my eyes causing a trip in my chest when her bright, beaming smile was back on her face. "How to hunt animals instead."

My eyes widened and my breath caught again. "Do you really want to learn?"

"I do, yes," Bella said and I could see no hint of the non-blush look on her face. Her face was open, smiling, and earnest.

"Why?" It was almost too much, this request, and I needed more before I could even let myself hope.

"What's the saying," she chuckled, but her eyes ducked down and the non-blush smile was back on her face, "'when in Rome'?"

I reached between us to tip her chin up, my golden eyes searching the crimson of hers. "Why, Bella?" I asked her, my voice soft and low.

Her tone matched mine, our eyes almost fused. "Because I want to stay here, I l-like spending time. Here. With. With you."

I couldn't tell if her disjointed speech was back because she was lying, anxious, or feeling the same pull I was, but I didn't stop to analyze it.

"I want the same, Bella. I want you to stay," I said softly.

"Then you'll teach me," she said, beaming a smile up into my eyes.

"I'll teach you," I replied and, turning to face the house, spoke towards the second floor game room. "Emmett, the trip to Rainier still on?"

"Hell yeah, it is. We're leaving in a few hours, why? You change your mind?"

"I did," I said, looking back at Bella. "Room for one more on the trip?"

There was a pause and then a hoot of delight. "Little nomad's coming with, is she? Excellent! Going to give the other side a try?"

I didn't answer him; I just turned back to Bella.

She was smiling up at me.

And slowly, tentatively, my face tilted and lowered towards hers. I gave her every chance to move away from me if she felt uncomfortable, but she made no such movement save raising onto her toes to get closer.

Our lips were a breath apart, her scent filled my nose, her body warm against mine, lips soft and close, parting just for me.

"Well, well. Isn't this just cozy."

My body locked down, a growl ripped up my chest.

I raised my eyes to meet Tanya's. She smiled daggers back at me.

"Please, don't let me interrupt."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N #1: Still just playing in SMeyer's sandbox, and grateful she shares her toys._

Our lips were a breath apart, her scent filled my nose, her body warm against mine, lips, soft and close, parting just for me.

"Well, well. Isn't this just cozy?"

My body locked down, a growl ripped up my chest. I raised my eyes to meet Tanya's. She smiled daggers back at me.

"Please, don't let me interrupt."

"You won't," I answered, "if you turn around and leave now."

Tanya affected a soft, almost simpering smile and I had to fight the urge to jump at her. My body was still humming from the change having Bella in my arms had wreaked on it and that wasn't helping my disposition any. Especially from an outside force that threatened to separate us. I had to work to regain my composure; it wouldn't help the situation if I flew off the handle.

"Leave?" She stepped forward and patted my cheek. "Whyever would I leave, Edward? I've only just arrived. And it's been so very long since we've seen one another."

Quicker than lightning, Tanya darted between Bella and I, pushing Bella to the side in an attempt to kiss me. I heard it in her thoughts in time to avert my face and her lips landed on my cheek instead.

Bella responded with a soft hiss followed by a low, deadly growl.

"How precious," Tanya shot Bella her most condescending smile as her hand slid around my waist in a highly possessive manner. "Are you really so territorial already, little on—"

Without so much as a twitch of warning, Bella sprang at her with all the strength of a human-fed vampire. Her strength wasn't that of a newborn, but it was damned close from what I could see. Before any of us could react, Bella had knocked Tanya to the ground and was standing between us, facing Tanya crouched and poised to spring again.

I put a hand on Bella's arm and squeezed. "It's all right. Relax. Tanya and I are…friends," I said, deciding on a word that was close enough.

It wasn't close enough for Tanya, however, because her eyes narrowed to slits again and I could almost feel the knives she was glaring at me penetrate my skin.

"Yes," she said, simpering again as she tried to regain control of the situation. "We're very old friends…Bella, is it? Known each other for ages, as have our families." Nimble as a cat, Tanya sprang back to her feet. She looked like she'd just come off a Paris runway rather than off the ground, but that was Tanya. Nothing phased her for long – outwardly at least.

Bella hadn't recovered her words yet, but her growls had shifted to a less threatening hiss.

"Come now, let's not stand on the front lawn like strangers, hmm? Let's go in and relax a bit." She walked a few steps forward then turned back to look at Bella, taking in her ragged clothing. "Or are you happier on the wilderness side of things?"

Her laugh tinkled on the light breeze like bells as she made her way into my house as if she'd somehow become lady of the manor. To me, though, it sounded more like fingernails down a blackboard, only five times more grating. I began to wonder how I'd tolerated it as long as I had.

"I'm sorry about this," I said, the second we were alone again, my hands reaching out for her. It was an ache, being separated from her. One almost as sharp as the thirst that had plagued me since the morning I awoke to this life.

"She's your mate," Bella said abruptly. "I should go."

"No!" Bella jumped from the vehemence in my tone and I risked darting my hand out to grab hers. I immediately softened my tone of voice. "She's not my mate, Bella. Just a…sort of girlfriend, I guess. Though that doesn't seem quite the right term for a vampire as old as she is."

I heard Tanya hiss over that, but surprisingly nothing else.

There should have been, at the very least, a howl of laughter from Alice over that comment, the sound of Jasper and Em high-fiving one another, maybe a scolding from Esme, but there was nothing. Apart from that hiss, the house in front of us was silent. My family must have headed off when Tanya arrived.

Cowards.

God, how I envied them.

"I should still…," Bella protested.

"Oh no, Bella, please do come in," Tanya said from inside the house, as if it were her province to invite people into my home. I growled again, Tanya ignored it. "We should get better acquainted."

Bella still didn't move. I could almost see the spring coiling inside her, ready to send her back off to the forest without a second's hesitation. I was half-tempted to suggest we do just that and leave Tanya here to stew alone, but she reappeared at the door before I could get my mouth open.

"Is something wrong with coming inside?" She asked, then made a point of looking Bella over from head to toe. She laughed just a little. It was a shallow laugh, with a mean edge to it. "Yes, I suppose there would be, hmm? Wouldn't want those precious little feet leaving nomad tracks all over the white carpet, now, would we?"

I hissed again and Tanya held her hand up. "Christ, Edward, what happened to your sense of humor? You develop an allergy to laughing that I don't know about?"

Bella turned to look at me then, her face a study in confusion. I couldn't read her thoughts but, as I was finding, with Bella, mind-reading wasn't exactly necessary. Her face gave away her every emotion. As if sensing my eyes on her, Bella looked from me to Tanya then back again. I watched the way her face changed as she tried to figure out what was what.

I was never sure if she came up with an answer or not, because Tanya moved towards me before any resolution appeared on Bella's face. Tanya's face was open and smiling, her hand extended towards me; the picture of friend greeting friend. I knew from her thoughts she intended to physically drag me into the house if necessary. She felt she would have the upper hand inside.

She never got the chance to find out.

Before she'd completed two strides, Bella shifted to stand in front of me, crouched low and growling.

Tanya rolled her eyes. "How quaint can you get? Little girl, you need to…"

The growling increased with the patronizing tone of voice.

"Step back, Tanya. She's volatile yet."

"Honestly, Edward. The day I back down from a child's threat is the day I—"

At first Tanya's dismissive comment was lost on a screaming wail from Bella, one that hit me again in both my mind and my ears. I was going to have to remember to ask Bella just how she did that. Before I could go any further with a mental list of questions for next time, Bella moved away from me.

Not to run away, as I'd expected. This time, Bella attacked.

* * *

Much as I hated it, I stayed with Tanya while Esme found her clothes to change into. I had tried to go to Bella, but based on the hisses I'd received, that wasn't an option. Alice had taken that option, and Bella, straight upstairs and out of my sight.

I still didn't like being separated from her, didn't like it at all, but my mother's dictates brooked no arguments.

"Your mess, young man. You clean it," my mother had said, kissing my cheek.

I was beginning to think she'd started taking smug lessons from Alice.

I took the seat opposite Tanya in the living room. She was sitting statue still, staring at her knees. The worst of the damage, the marks Bella's teeth had managed to make, were already fading. As far as we could tell, the bites weren't deep enough to leave lasting scars. Tanya had righted her hair back into its normal, elegant upsweep. In fact, the only remnants of the fight were the tattered and torn clothes nearly hanging off her body in places.

"She's quite a find, Edward, you must be so pleased. Nice to know I'm being replaced by a heathen who can't even hold a civil conversation without snarling through half of it."

I let the sarcasm flow over me, descending to that right now would help nothing. I had cheated on Tanya, there was no getting around that, so I took the hits she was flinging at me, both verbal and thought.

I couldn't help feeling just a bit relieved that through her tirade, the only thoughts she had centered on her hurt pride; there was no trace of the sadness of a broken heart. I'd always known Tanya only wanted me as a conquest, a mountain to be climbed so to speak. Getting confirmation of the fact assuaged a great deal of my guilt.

I could only hope that her pride would not insist she put in an attempt to win me back.

"And honestly, Edward," she continued, "ripping and growling at me like you were the last bear in the forest? Why, she's practically feral for all intents. I can't understand what you could possibly see in her."

Her insults flew at me like bullets and I did nothing to deflect because I had deserved them. My intentions had paved me a nice path to the hell I was having to endure. I drew the line, however, at anything being said about Bella herself and spoke up for the first time in nearly five minutes.

"You provoked her, Tanya, provoked a vampire clearly stronger on a recent feed of human blood."

"I took a step towards my lover. I was hardly charging you full on like a lion on the hunt."

"She's still young, you know she didn't see it that way. She saw you as a threat, she reacted accordingly."

"A young, feral, murderer," Tanya said airily, "you certainly are moving up in the world, Edward. I suppose my poise and morals were just far too boring for you?"

"Tanya," I said, my voice thick with warning.

"It's true, isn't it? She feeds off humans, something you haven't done in decades because you didn't want to be a monster? Your words, Edward. Not mine." She laughed lightly. "And now I'm being tossed over for one. How lovely. Going through another rebellion then? Or did you think to change her, help her see the delights of vegetarian life."

"She's going to try." The words were out before I could stop them; they sounded pathetic even to my ears.

Tanya's laugh echoed through the room. "Of course she is. Probably all eager to try, to please you. And with her veins full of human blood and her thirst slaked it's an easy thing to say. You think she'll just nod once and accept an elk as substitute for a warm, tasty human just because of your dietary choices when the thirst is raging again and there's a human nearby? Just for you?"

"That's enough," I hissed.

"I don't think it is," she said and her eyes narrowed towards me, studying me as her mind worked. "There's something else. Some other reason. She's hardly the first nomad you've encountered. I know that for a fact. And all of them have landed well below your radar. Hell, most of them don't even earn your contempt. So what's so different about this girl…?"

"I said that's enough," I repeated, suddenly wanting to rip a few strips off of her myself. She was getting too close...and Bella was still in the house.

It was obvious the second she put two and two together.

"Oh, no. Oh Edward," she simpered condescendingly, "she isn't, is she? Tell me she isn't the little human you obsessed over when you first moved to Forks?"

I said nothing.

Tanya threw back her head and laughed. "Well, that explains everything, doesn't it? So you finally found the object of your obsessions but surprise, surprise, she's a nomadic vampire bent on draining humans to survive. The irony is just too wonderful."

To my utter amazement, Tanya stood and straightened the rags she wore as best she could. "I think I'll leave now. You can tell Esme I'll pass on the replacement outfit. I've never been interested in watching train wrecks. Nothing but a dirty, messy business and I've had quite enough of that for one day. But I do wish you luck in the fun times to come Edward," she grinned. "And best of luck training your nomad."

Before my mouth could open, Tanya was gone out the front door.

But when I went upstairs to check on Bella, it was only to find that she had gone straight out the back window.

My stomach twisted.

"How much did she hear?" I asked as the pit of dread spread through my midsection.

"All of it, I'm afraid. I kept trying to talk over it, to mask Tanya's bullshit, but I could see her listening through it. I'm sorry, Edward."

My hand ran through my hair once, twice, as I tried to decide what to do. Give her space or chase after her and try to explain.

Both had merits, just as both had their downfalls.

In the end, though, as I couldn't keep my feet still from the pacing, I knew my decision had been made. I'd be going after her.

What I was going to say when I found her was another matter – and one I decided I'd think about when I had to. Because bitchy as she was, Tanya had made some valid points about dietary choices and my acceptance of them. I _had_ met several nomads in the years we'd roamed the Earth, some very attractive nomads, but none had garnered more than a second glance from me – not when the only thing looking back were the ruby red eyes of the monster I tried so hard not to be.

Why was it I could look past that, even make excuses for it, with Bella as I'd never been able to do with anyone else? Was because I'd been so obsessed for so long that I was willing to make any allowances to keep her in my life?

* * *

Finding Bella hadn't been the long-drawn out search I'd expected.

In fact, it wasn't a search at all.

When I followed her path out of the back window, I gave myself over to my other senses, drawing in a deep breath through my nose to catch and carry her scent just as I did while hunting. Once I found her scent, I let go completely and let the scent lead my body without conscious intervention from my mind.

I was so focused, I nearly plowed into her when I found her, not a minute later, at the edge of the river that bisected our property.

"Bella?"

She didn't turn to greet me. In fact, she made no acknowledgement of my presence at all for 60 long, agonizing seconds.

"Is it true?" She asked at last, still turned away from me.

My mouth opened once, then closed with a snap. I wasn't about to blunder forward, admitting or denying anything. Not without knowing what I was being asked first, at least.

"Is what true?"

She finally spun around, slowly, to face me. I gasped at the pain I saw etched into every curve of her face.

"You. You knew me. Before? You know who I was?"

I had to think about that one for a moment. "Yes and no."

It was wholly inappropriate to the moment, but when she growled at my non-answer, I almost laughed. She truly was adorable when she was angry. I'd have to tell her that sometime...when there wasn't a threat that she'd take my compliment as a condescending insult and shred my skin as she had Tanya's.

"That's the truth, though. I didn't know you as a human, you disappeared months before we moved to Forks."

There was a silence during which Bella turned to face me, one eyebrow raised. "But...?"

"But," I started to say, then stopped. Physically I didn't have any need to clear my throat, but I did so anyway to try and get past the chagrin in my voice. "But I found a poster of you, one from when you went missing. And it. You. Called to me. I tried to figure out what had happened to you, where you might have gone or why."

I watched her expressive face as she thought over what I'd said. Every new thought and revelation telegraphed itself across her features, punctuated with the occasional gasp and what could only be called a sob.

"I. I lived here? In Forks? Is that why...why I keep coming back here?"

"Yes, you did, Bella. And while I can't say for certain it's why you come back, that would make sense, especially if you were happy here. That happiness would have stayed a part of you, I'd think, even when your conscious mind could no longer recall it."

She nodded, still clearly ruminating over what I'd told her. And then her deep red eyes raised to mine, the naked pleading in them hit me like twin lasers to the chest.

I felt no contempt for her, or the way she fed, there was only the desire to rush forward and hold her until the smile was back in her eyes again.

"Can you," she said, then it was her turn to clear her throat. She took a tentative step towards me, then another. "Who was I, Edward...before...?"

I smiled and held out my hand. I would worry about my motivations later. For now, she needed comfort and information and I was more than willing to provide both.

It felt like sliding a key into a lock when her small, slight fingers slid against my palm then laced with my own.

We walked slowly as we talked, in no hurry to get anywhere. I sensed it was easier for Bella if we were moving, so she had something to focus on, or maybe a way to hide her expressions. Whatever the reason, she was more relaxed at my side and that could only help.

She didn't interrupt much, or at all, really as I filled her in on what I knew of her life in Forks: that she'd come to live with her father, leaving her mother and stepfather to travel for his job, that she had been a good student but a quite one, making a few friends but not overly social. I even told her about the freak accident that had almost killed her. Surprisingly, that didn't seem to bother her. None of it did.

And I realized. To Bella, this was like telling her a friend's life history, or even the plot of a book, she felt no connection to it at all.

Well, almost no connection. Her hand had tightened on mine every time I mentioned her father. Based on the way he looked whenever he even thought of Bella, I knew his connection to her had been strong – now I knew that their father-daughter bond was a mutually strong one, not one-sided. In that instant, I was glad for Bella that she had no memories of him – that she was spared the pain of losing him.

Silence fell between us while I debated telling her about Jake. Would it interest her, the former best friend that now would have no other choice but to kill her if he saw her again?

In the end, though, I told her. No matter my feelings for the volatile shapeshifter, it seemed like more of a lie than an omission to keep it from her.

As I should have guessed, telling her what I knew of that friendship had her hand tightening on mine again. But as with everything else, that was the only reaction. Jake, her father, high school, all of that belonged to human Bella not to her – it was an interesting story to her, nothing more.

"Thank you," she said softly when our feet finally halted at the edge of a cliff that overlooked the lush valley below us. "Thank you for telling me about myself."

"You're welcome," I responded with a smile, looking down into her eyes. "I'm very glad I was able to. It's haunted Alice, I know, not having any idea who she was before she woke to her new life."

Bella smiled, turning to face me and slipping her other hand into mine. My chest felt tight, like the itch of an amputated limb, phantom adrenaline was coursing through my body. I mentally berated myself to get a grip.

As with every other internal discussion, I wasn't listening to myself at all.

"It never really bothered me, though, not until I met Garrett and he asked about my past. I think that was the first time I realized I didn't have one. Those first months," she said softly, a shiver passing over her body.

I nodded, feeling a frisson of jealousy cross over me at the way soft, familiar way she said Garrett's name. "Those first few months it's all you can do to keep sane."

"But you don't know...how it happened?"

I didn't need to ask what she meant. "No, not exactly. All we have are suppositions."

"And the suppositions are?"

"We know there was a vampire in the area, another nomad, based on disappearances and deaths in the immediate area around the time you disappeared. It. It seems to me that he was staying around Forks, around the peninsula, for a reason. That reason could only be you."

"Why me?"

"Because the deaths and disappearances ended with yours. You were the last."

She was quite, digesting that information I supposed, so I continued. "There are others out there who aren't content to simply exist in this life. They make games out of it, choosing a human, stalking them sometimes, before taking them."

Bella gasped, her whole body going rigid against mine. "Bella? Love, what is it?"

"S-stalking?"

I nodded, my mind so focused on the panic and terror on her face to form words without effort. I slipped my hands from hers, glided them up her arms, not stopping until her face was cupped between my palms.

"What is it, Bella? Tell me."

"She. She said stalking. I re-remember it, remember her saying it."

"Who?"

"Woman. There was a woman, talking to me," Bella said, her voice a whisper, "the pain. It hurt so much. Said no more stalking. He couldn't have me, wouldn't want me."

She couldn't continue past the tremors that had begun to wrack her body. It was like holding an earthquake in my arms, so violent were the vibrations, but I didn't let go. I remembered how she had been about being touched and I was on alert for any sign that this was unwelcome.

It must not have been, because her arms came around me the second her body started to quiver.

I slipped my hands from her face back down her arms then back around her body. I murmured softy against her ear, coaxing her cheek to rest on my chest, trying whatever I could to soothe her, but the shaking continued unabated.

I never knew how long we stood there before Bella calmed, but full dark had fallen around us. It was a rare clear night on the Olympic Peninsula, and stars winked to life over our heads, a bright moon rising with it.

We didn't need the light to see, but that didn't make it any less comforting.

Slowly, achingly slowly, I pulled back and tipped Bella's chin up to look into her beautiful face. "Are you all right?"

It took a minute for her to answer, clearly she was taking a mental inventory. "I am now, yes. Thank you."

"What just happened?" I asked, wanting to know for certain what had transpired while she nearly shook apart in my arms.

"I remembered my transformation, in…in detail. From the moment I woke up in agony, to the last beat of my heart."

My arms tightened around her and I wished I could have spared her that pain. "I'm sorry," I said at last, my hands coming up to cup her face again.

She shook her head. "Don't be. It wasn't pleasant, the experience or reliving it, but I'm glad I know now. Unfortunately, there's not much more than that, no clue as to how I was turned, just what happened when I did."

"That's not entirely true, Bella. We know that there were two people involved, a male and a female. Not specifics, no, but it's something to go on."

"I don't want anything to go on. It's no point knowing who did this to me, it's done. One thing having no past will do for you," she said with a soft smile, "you can't wallow in it. I am who I am, and I'd rather move forward."

"But—" I started to say, but her mouth was in the way.

So jolted was I when her lips touched mine, it took a full ten seconds for me to realize she was kissing me. But that was the only wasted time. When her soft lips moved over mine, I returned the caress with one of my own, my tentative tongue darting out to slide along the warm glass of her lower lip.

Bella gasped, not in shock, or terror or even tension. Her sounds were all passion, all pleasure, evidenced by her hand fisting in my hair and her body moving closer to mine, as if the breath of space between us was entirely too far away.

Her taste flooded my system as our tongues tangled together, sweeter than her scent, more potent than blood, it coursed through every inch of my body. It was a drug, one I could see being as addictive as any human substance and I knew one kiss would never be enough.

I didn't think a lifetime would be enough.

"Edward," Bella gasped softly, dropping her head back to give better access to my searching lips, now kissing along the smooth column of her throat.

"Bella," I answered between butterfly kisses. She hadn't asked a question, and I hadn't answered one, but somehow, we both understood. This was right.

I shifted my lips back up towards her jaw, kissing along it to find her lips again. We had time, all the time in forever to spend moving forward. For now, I wanted to spend that forever kissing her.

At least, that was my intention before the jarring ring of a cellular phone broke us apart like a porch light switched on over human teens at the end of a date.

"Ignore it," Bella said, almost pleaded, as her lips took their turn caressing my jaw, my ear, my throat.

"I can't," I said sadly. And it was true. If someone was calling me – all right, I knew it was Alice, she was the only one who ever did – then it was something important, something she'd seen.

If there was danger, I needed to know about it. Because I wasn't just protecting myself any longer. I was protecting my love, my mate.

My Bella.

As I pulled the phone from my pocket and answered it, I couldn't stop a shiver of foreboding dancing along my spine.

"What is it, Alice?"

"You need to come home, Edward. You need to bring Bella home."

Immediately my back stiffened. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," she said, but I could hear the tension in her voice, "exactly. There's someone here to see her."

I groaned. Damned Jacob Black. I should have known he wouldn't be able to stay away from her, or keep from interfering.

"Tell Ja—"

"It's not Jake, Edward. It's someone named Garrett."

The news had Bella smiling in happiness and excitement. My reaction was just a bit different.

I started to growl and very nearly dropped into a protective stance even though the man in question was miles away, back at the house.

Bella, who had started off towards the house already, stopped and turned back to look at me. I have no idea what expression was on my face, but it made her beam that full, open smile that I loved back at me.

"He's a friend, Edward. My only friend," she said, her voice light and lyrical in my ears as her hand slipped into mine again. "Come meet him. Please?"

I already knew there were very few things I would ever deny Bella and meeting a friend of hers certainly wasn't one of them. Especially when she punctuated her plea with another kiss that was both sweet and scorching at the same time.

Still, though, one thought niggled at me as we ran back towards the house. Maybe it was because this phone call came on the heels of Bella remembering her transformation, and that was fresh in my mind. But there was an unknown man involved in the trauma of that transformation. This Garrett had found Bella, presumably by accident, and helped her adjust to her new life.

I couldn't help but wonder if that was the extent of his involvement in her early life. Could he have been the unknown man? My instincts said no, but I wasn't about to let down my guard when I met him. I was also very glad that I had never told Bella of my gift. Bella didn't know I could read minds, so neither would this Garrett.

It wasn't much of an edge, but I'd take it


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N: Same disclaimer applies – not my characters, just what they do in this story_

I already knew there were very few things I would ever deny Bella and meeting a friend of hers certainly wasn't one of them. Especially when she punctuated her plea with another kiss that was both sweet and scorching at the same time.

Still, though, one thought niggled at me as we ran back towards the house. There was an unknown man involved in the trauma of Bella's transformation. This Garrett had found Bella, presumably by accident, and helped her adjust to her new life.

I couldn't help wondering if that was the extent of his involvement in her transformation and wasn't about to let down my guard when I met him. I was also very glad that I had never told Bella of my gift. Bella didn't know I could read minds, so neither would this Garrett.

It wasn't much of an edge, but I'd take it.

It was an uneventful and quiet run home; Bella was too excited about seeing her friend to focus on idle conversation as we ran. For my part, I was doing all I could to lock down my errant emotions enough to keep the instinct to stand between Bella and Garrett to myself.

Or at the very least to keep from outright growling.

It was a very good thing that I had taken that time. The second we arrived at the clearing behind the house, Bella shot past me on a burst of speed and landed straight in the other vampire's arms.

My fingernails nearly left visible marks in my palms as I fought to contain the growl that had only one meaning – "Mine!" – from ripping up my throat. I'm still not sure just how I managed it.

As it turned out, however, any advantage I'd hoped to have over Garrett was a vain one.

When I caught up to the hugging pair, I immediately filtered all the sounds and thoughts, segregating familiar and unfamiliar. Or I would have separated the unfamiliar – but there hadn't been any. I hadn't been able to hear anything unusual. At all. The place where he stood was just empty space. Same as with Bella.

It was unnerving.

I focused further, trying to make sure my ability was working right – maybe it had gone deaf?

Alice was flitting over some sort of material in her room, Carlisle was watching us cautiously, Jasper was just as cautious, albeit slightly more relaxed as he could feel nothing but happiness in their emotions, Emmett was...well, not much phased Emmett, Esme was fussing over flower arrangements in anticipation of another houseguest, Rosalie was bored.

Not a thing out of the ordinary.

The two hugging vampires on the back lawn may as well have been trees for all I heard of them. With my mind, at least.

Vocally, they were talking up a storm.

"Whoa, Bella, whoa," Garrett laughed. "I don't think you've spoken this much the whole time I've known you. No!" He corrected quickly, because Bella's face fell a bit. "It's a good thing. A very, very good thing. A lovely change from the halts and starts I'm used to."

"It's just I'm so happy to see you. There's so much I want to tell you, annnnd," she said on a laugh, drawing out the last word, "there's someone I want you to meet."

She turned then and I could see the surprise on her face that I was so far away, still lingering on the fringes of the forest.

"Edward?"

"On my way," I said easily. "Just checking the one tree. Looked as though the storm had pushed it a bit and I didn't want it damaging the house next time," I said, lying easily.

The tone of my words rang true, but as far as excuses went, I knew it was fairly pathetic. I also knew that it would only serve to make the bad lie worse if I blathered on about it, so I dropped the subject entirely and sprinted the last 50 yards to Bella's side.

I'd never thought of myself overly territorial. I must be though, because the second it was physically possible, Bella's hand was in mine. It might not have been the ceremonial peeing on everything that the animal kingdom preferred, but it sent the same message; and sent it in a more socially acceptable way.

Mine.

By the nod from Garrett, he got the message loud and clear. His expression said he'd be deciding later if he liked it or not.

With my left hand firmly in Bella's, I extended my right towards the other vampire, my voice steady. "Edward Cullen."

"Garrett," he offered, returning my handshake. He wasn't the first vampire I'd met who went without surname. Many of them abandoned them after a few decades, or centuries. Without relatives, family connections started to mean very little.

In this, as with so many other things, we were set apart.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Garrett. I've heard so much about you from Bella."

She squeezed my hand and looked up into my eyes. I couldn't help smiling back; I didn't even care what goofy, sappy expression was on my face. When she favored me with that grin? The world seemed to melt away to include only the small, slight vampire at my side.

Garrett had to clear his throat to pull my attention back.

"I said," he grinned at me, a knowing smirk on his face, "that I wish I could say the same, but apparently a year isn't as short as it used to be. Much has changed in so little time."

"That it has. Would you like to come in? Meet the rest of my family?"

That shook the smirk from Garrett's face a bit. "Family? Certainly not..."

Now I got to be a little smug. "Not a human one, no. We serve the same purpose, though even if we are only related by venom and lifestyle choices."

"Lifestyle choices?"

"Yes," Bella said, with the conviction of a convert who's yet to be tested on the most challenging part of conversion. "They don't feed off of humans. Animals only. I was just going to leave with them to start doing the same, then...well, we all got a little sidetracked."

I had to stifle a grin, thinking that Tanya would utterly loathe being referred to as a sidetrack.

"Hang on, animals? You're serious?" Garrett's eyes searched over my face, touching on my own eyes several times. "I'd noticed your eyes, of course, but thought it rude to ask."

"Not rude at all," I countered with an easy smile. "Just a byproduct of our dietary intake."

Garrett shook his head, a disbelieving and almost indulgent smile on his face. "I've seen some odd things in my centuries, I truly have. This puts most of it to shame."

Bella giggled. "Oh, Garrett, you're still not harping about rocks and water, are you?"

"Of course I am," Garret laughed and it was clear this was an ongoing conversation between the two. "Seeing humans pass over good money, and lots of it, to buy things they have free already? Sorry, sweetheart, I'll never understand it."

I was utterly lost and I'm sure it showed on my face.

"Pet rocks and bottled water," Garrett clarified. "Two fairly recent fads I simply cannot comprehend. Not that I think your, er, choice a fad," he said quickly, as if afraid he'd offended me, "just that it's another in a list of things I don't understand the meaning of. I mean, it's not as if there aren't a glut of humans, especially in this country."

I sighed. It wasn't the first time I'd encountered this attitude amongst other vampires – the thinning the herd mindset. I knew it well and understood it, too. Especially coupled with the thoughts that went along with it. In the early days, for some, it was easier to survive if one stopped thinking of humans as your fellows. That was the first step away from humanity and every human killed to survive furthered the journey.

In other words, the sooner them mentality became "us" and "them," the easier it was to see humans as food only, and not equal to the brothers or sisters, mothers or fathers you no longer had. And the easier it was to live with what you had to do to survive.

I'd made the mistake before of trying to argue the point with other nomads and had long since given up the practice. Only vampires open to the change, like Jasper...like Bella, were worth the discussion.

Thankfully, Garrett didn't seem poised to debate it either.

"Enough about that," he said with a grin. "We could stand here yammering until the snow fell and never change the other's mind by jolt or by twitter. You'd mentioned a family? I'd be delighted to meet them. Or have I committed such a social blunder that offer's rescinded?"

It made no sense, really. I couldn't get a single thought from him, and that should have made me uneasy. It didn't. There was just something...truly likeable about the vampire.

That, coupled with the fact that Alice was happily singing away upstairs, designing prom dresses for she and Rosalie, had me leading the three of us back towards the house. If Alice was deep in her sketches, there was nothing dangerous to any of us on the horizon.

Bella, for her part, was practically radiating happiness. She still held my hand, and she'd moved close to me as Garrett and I talked until she was hugging my arm to her body.

"See? I told you. Garrett's wonderful, isn't he?"

"Not sure about that one, Bella," I said with a grin and reached over to tip her chin up. I smiled at the pout forming there. "I have rather different criteria than you do, though."

"You do?" Her voice was a bit breathless.

"Yes. This…is what I consider wonderful."

Then I leaned in and kissed her, soft at first, but hinting at more. The pout melted away under my lips caresses, opening softly on a sound so low I was the only one who could possibly have heard. I turned more to face her and deepened the kiss, darting my tongue out once to trace along the closed seam of her lips. I nearly gasped in surprise when they parted beneath mine. Tentatively, I moved my tongue forward, slipping between her now open mouth...

"Shall I come back at a more convenient time?"

This time I did growl. I was able, just barely, to keep myself from dropping into a crouch at least.

There was only one sound that could reach through the instinct and pull me back to myself. Bella's bell-like laughter.

"Edward, it's all right."

I wrenched my eyes from Garrett's amused face to Bella's smiling one and my body relaxed. I kissed her once on the forehead, thanking her for her help, before returning to Garrett.

"I'd apologize, but I wouldn't really mean it," I said honestly, a grin on my own face now, leading us across the back patio to the glass doors.

"Nor should you. Apologies for kissing beautiful, willing women should be illegal," he smiled back and he followed me into the house.

* * *

The last, lingering doubts I'd had about Garrett and his possible involvement with Bella's transformation vanished after he'd spent the afternoon with my family. I could understand my own fears, mostly because there was a part of me, however small, that was jealous that this vampire was the one to find Bella and help her.

Garrett was the hero of my little protector fantasy, not me.

I should have loathed him for that alone; but there was no loathing in me. Garrett just didn't provoke that sort of reaction.

He was just a vampire, a normal vampire male content to wander alone, hunt when the thirst became unbearable, and experience what the world had to offer him.

If he had any part in the suspected and sadistic stalking I had surmised and Bella had remembered, I'd let the puppy pack to our south raise their legs to my piano.

When I'd finally accepted that, I settled in to an enjoyable afternoon. We told him of our family, both here and in Alaska (in general terms, I didn't mention Tanya's name at all), and he told us about his centuries. He and Carlisle reminisced about Revolutionary America, and then he and Jasper did the same over the Civil War. I could hear the bittersweet in both memories and questioned him about it. He said he'd let himself get attached to the humans he was helping; and that even the ones that survived the wars, he'd still had to say goodbye to in the end. It was why he concentrated his time in the US on areas west of the Mississippi. There were too many memories in the Eastern US for him.

Throughout all of this, Bella remained at my side on the sofa. I could tell she was still not that accustomed to furniture; I could also see her determination to fix that. I saw her eyes dart around the room, watching Alice, Rosalie, and even Esme as they sat with Jazz, Em and Carlisle. By the time Jasper and Garrett were discussing Gettysburg, Bella was curved into my side, her fingers playing with mine.

I was actually surprised that happiness wasn't a tangible thing radiating off of me.

Then again, it might have been. My mother's thoughts from across the room were about as smug as a fat cat after a large bowl of cream. And Jasper kept grinning at me.

"I told you," Bella said when she caught me staring at her while Garrett was laughing with Jazz and Em about some adventure he'd been on in New Zealand.

"What did you tell me?" I asked, leaning low to kiss the soft tip of her nose.

"That he's a great guy. I could see your eyes, Edward, you didn't want to believe it, did you?"

I laughed. "Of course I didn't. No man wants to think that their...," I paused for just a second, "that their friend thinks so highly of another man."

Bella cocked her head at me. There was a frown forming between her eyebrows. "Friend?"

"You don't want to be my friend?" I hedged my answer, not wanting to spook her again with suppositions, or moving too fast.

"Of course I do," she said, then shifted her gaze from my eyes to my hands.

I wasn't having any of that and tipped her chin back up. "I sense a 'but' in there."

Even though I knew she was uncomfortable, my fingers tightened on her chin just the same. "No, Edward, it's fine. I just thou—"

"No way, man. You got I _drunk/I_?"

Emmett's booming voice shocked both Bella and I out of the intensity of our private conversation. Bella actually jumped a fraction of an inch in surprise.

I stifled a grumbling growl at the interruption, and swallowed down my own frustration, because rather than telling me what she'd thought, Bella's attention was now fully turned onto Garrett and his story. She was already smiling, so I knew she'd heard it before, rather than drag her away to finish our conversation, I turned my attention to Garrett as well.

I took consolation that her hand was still in mine, warm fingers tracing patterns along my palm and then my knuckles. Whatever discomfort she'd felt earlier, it clearly didn't affect her wanting to be close to me.

For now, that was enough. Or it would have to be, at least, until we could find some time to be alone again.

"Yes, I did," Garrett continued. "Only lasted for about five minutes before my body's absorption of the blood negated the effects but, yes. I was banging off the walls of that alley feeling like I'd taken an iron skillet to my head and finding the whole thing monstrously funny because I couldn't stop laughing."

I shook my head when I caught Emmett's thoughts from across the room. He was already trying to figure out how to get a grizzly to down a bottle of whiskey.

The conversations carried on for a few more hours, Garrett delighting my family and being delighted in turn by them. I could tell this was a true friendship forming and that even if he hadn't felt responsible for Bella, he would be visiting us again.

"Well," the nomad said as night began to fall outside. He went from sitting to standing in one fluid motion. "I appreciate your hospitality very much, however, I've got to be off. I'm meeting an old friend in Argentina next week and I'm already behind on my travel schedule."

"No," Bella protested and left my side to dart over to him. "You just got here."

Garrett smiled. "I did, yes, to check on you. And I've done that. You're in very good hands now, aren't you? I'll be back again soon, I promise."

From what I could see of her face, I knew Bella was wearing the expression I'd come to associate with a blush. They shared a brief few words, talking so low and fast, I didn't catch any of what they were saying.

Not that I was cad enough to try and listen to such a private moment.

Or, at least, I didn't try very hard.

After a few minutes, Garrett wrapped his arms around Bella in a hug and lifted her straight off her feet. He planted a kiss on her forehead before setting her back on the ground.

I was able, somehow, to keep from charging him.

When finally they broke apart, Garrett raised his head towards me. "Edward? I wonder if I could have a word alone, before I go?"

I hadn't been expecting the request, but when it came I couldn't say I was altogether surprised by it either. The relationship between Bella and Garrett reminded me a lot of mine with Alice even though they spent so little time together. It was natural that he'd want a moment to make sure she was truly in good hands.

"Of course," I said and rose as well, walking to the patio.

"Edward?" Bella called out, and I could see the unease in her eyes, mixed with a little chagrin. She knew what was coming, just as I did.

I could no more have turned my back on that look than I could have smashed Esme's best china with my favorite bat. I zipped to her side and took her face in my hands.

"Don't worry, Bella," I said softly, lowering to kiss her.

"He's going to be stupid," Bella said in protest, shaking her head.

My suppositions about this private word Garrett wanted were confirmed in that statement – I was about to get The Talk. I smiled into Bella's eyes and spoke against her lips. "It's fine, I'll survive it," I stopped, looked at her, and winked. "I think."

I cut off her protest with another kiss, longer and deeper than the last, my hand coming up to fist in the hair at the base of her neck.

It took six vampires clearing their throats and a smack on the back of the head from Emmett to bring me around this time. I grinned at Bella unapologetically when I pulled away finally. I wasn't sure what my expression was, if her reaction was any indication, it was this side of a decent smolder.

And because her reaction to that look made me want to carry her upstairs right that second, I did the only thing I could do. I turned towards the back patio and walked out onto the lawn before I could give in to it. We kept walking, out into the forest – neither of us, it seemed, wanted Bella within hearing distance as we spoke.

My mind was so consumed with keeping the urge to run back to Bella at bay, it was almost a full half-minute before I realized I could hear Garrett's thoughts.

I turned sharply to face him. "What the hell?"

Garrett's face went from jovial to puzzled in a blink. "What's wrong?" His own survival instinct had been triggered and I could hear him as he scanned the forest surrounding us.

"I have an ability," I explained. "I can read minds. Every mind, I thought, until I met Bella. I can't read hers, and I couldn't read yours until just a moment ago."

To my shock, Garrett's face went straight back into a smile.

"And this clearly doesn't come as a surprise to you," I added, when the other vampire didn't appear to be forthcoming.

"Before we get into that, I'd rather have this said straight off the mark," he said. "I'm guessing you now know what's coming, both from what Bella said and from hearing it here," he said and tapped his temple. "And that doesn't matter a damn, because I'm going to say it anyway."

I nodded. Better to have the practicalities seen to first.

"When I found Bella, she was in deplorable condition. And I mean deplorable."

He didn't continue, not verbally. I could see the pain of recollection on his face, as if even thinking of it was too much to bear, much less explaining it. A second later, I was assaulted with his memories. There was no other word for it. If I thought Bella had looked bad when I found her in our forest, it was nothing to what she looked like in Garrett's memories, near naked and shivering, cowering away from him like a beaten dog.

"My God," I breathed.

"Exactly," Garrett nodded. "I stayed with her longer than I ever have with anyone else, until I was certain she could survive on her own. I've been back twice to check on her since, and I've never seen her as happy, as I _normal/I_ as she seems now. Hell with that, she's talking in complete sentences. That in itself is a near miracle. Which sort of makes my posturing speech about 'if you hurt her I'll pull you apart and roast the pieces' sort of moot, but I feel honor bound to say it just the same."

I nodded, I said as much to Emmett when he joined us, even though I didn't have a tenth the affection for Rosalie as Garrett clearly had for Bella.

"Do you have any idea how this happened? Who sired her?"

To my utter surprise, he did.

He knew I was reading the answer in his thoughts, and didn't seem to mind – some didn't because it saved explanation time. He did hold up a hand to try and calm me when my hands clenched into fists after I'd heard all his mind had to say on the matter.

"It's a supposition, Edward, not fact. I've heard of this other nomad, James, and the games he liked to play with human girls several times over the past forty or so years," he said and shuddered. I did too at the images his mind called forth. "From what I could get from Bella, her abduction fit the pattern. The only thing that doesn't is that she's a vampire now, too. Near as I've been able to find, none of his other victims survived."

"Do you know where he is now?" I asked; my teeth gritted so hard I was surprised they didn't break.

"No, and I've not seen him, or his mate Victoria, in years," he said, and his tone indicated that he'd been looking. "Unfortunately, I have no head for tracking at all. I wasn't gifted with anything save a healthy sense of adventure and a general sense of strong emotions and the stray thoughts behind them."

With that comment, we were brought back around full circle.

Garrett nodded and smiled. "And speaking of gifts, you're back to wondering why yours have no effect around Bella."

My mouth gaped open. "You can read minds?"

He shook his head. "Not at all, I'm afraid. Or, at least, nothing to compare with your ability. In three hundred years, though, I've learned to read expressions fairly well," he said on a laugh. "And yours matched mine when I realized I she was like a blank space."

"Have your three hundred years provided you with an answer as well?" I couldn't help it, his smug 'I know more than you, sonny boy' routine was getting a bit old. And, more to the point, after seeing what I had in Garrett's memories, I wanted, almost needed, to get back to Bella. To hold her in my arms and not let go until those images were chased away.

"I wish it had," he said, "I don't have a clue beyond suppositions. All I know is that even my own insight – the thoughts behind their stronger emotions – is gone when I'm near her. Maybe she's a siphon for special abilities?"

My face wanted to frown because I knew that wasn't true – Jazz could sense her emotions, and Alice could see her in her future visions – but like him though I did, I also wasn't about to go broadcasting my families abilities simply to make a point.

"Maybe," I agreed with sincerity.

Garrett laughed. "You don't think so."

"Not at all," I agreed and couldn't help laughing along with him, then stiffened when the wind shifted suddenly and with it, the sound of heavy paws, the rustle and shimmer of a changing body, the tug of denim over skin.

Great. This was Ijust/I what I needed.

"We should—" I began, but didn't get more than that out before he was in front of us.

"What the fuck is this?"

I sighed. "Hello, Jake. You're far from home today."

"Not that far. What, you running a halfway house for vamps now?" He added the last with a glare at Garrett.

"Funny. Actually, I was just escorting a friend off after a nice long visit. We were so caught up in our conversation I hadn't realized that we'd strayed so close to the border. Close, mind, not over. Which means you have no province here, correct?"

Jake glared at me. I ignored it.

"Border?" Garrett asked, puzzled.

I nodded to him. "A little glitch with living here." I explained, very briefly, the living arrangements we shared with the tribe to our south while Jacob glowered at us. Garrett scoffed at the shapeshifter part, but my earnest sense convinced him where my words didn't.

"This one's not like you, bloodsucker, nor is he family. That means he's fair game. So I'd get him lost, or get out of our way if you don't want to be hit with the pieces as they fly. My leniency only goes so far."

We both knew he was talking about Bella.

Garrett turned to me, blocking out the scowling man in front of us. The jovial smile was gone, and worried thoughts were bouncing through his mind like mad. "She'll be all right? With you, even with," he hitched his shoulder towards Jake.

"She will be. It's...it's complicated, but you have my word. I'll protect her with my own life," I affirmed.

"Oh please," Jake piped up. "Like that means anything to the undead."

We both ignored him.

"I'll trust you to it then, to her," he said, though he clearly wasn't as comfortable with it as he'd been five minutes before. "I left Bella my email address," he added with a half-hearted grin. "Apparently even ancient dogs can learn new tricks. I'm able to check it world wide on public access machines. Keep in touch? And teach Bella to do the same?"

I promised to do just that, adding another affirmation that I'd keep Bella safe, before the nomad was gone, loping off in the opposite direction at what humans would consider a brisk sprint.

I couldn't say I blamed him. Notwithstanding his attitude, Jake really did smell horrid.

"You really should work on your charm, Jake. You might even be able to find a girl, or friends, or something to do beyond skulking around the forest hoping for—"

"Edward?"

We both froze.

Bella, who had apparently followed me, was running towards us and closing in fast.

"Get out of here," I hissed at Jake. The shapeshifter was too stunned to move. His eyes remained fixated on the bushes, his body rigid.

I turned to take matters into my own hands, to divert from here.

It was too late.

Just as I turned towards the sound of her run, she broke through the shrubbery and straight into my arms. "I thought I'd run back with you," she said on a small smile, the one that would have her blushing if it were possible. "And we could continue our talk from earlier."

She stopped when the smell reached her, her little nose wrinkling up in distaste. "There's that sme—"

The world seemed to stop spinning on its axis for the long, pregnant moment when their eyes met. I tightened my hold on Bella, ready to run off with her the second the shapeshifter so much as twitched.

He was as frozen as she was, though.

"Jake?" Bella asked softly.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N #1: Standard disclaimer – just playing in the sandbox, the character names belong to SMeyer. However, what they do in this story belongs to me._

"Get out of here," I hissed at Jake.

The shapeshifter was too stunned to move. His eyes remained fixated on the bushes, his body rigid.

I turned to take matters into my own hands, to divert her away from here if Jake was playing at vampire shock.

It was too late.

Just as I turned towards the sound of her run, she broke through the shrubbery and straight into my arms. "I thought I'd run back with you," she said on a small smile, the one that would have her blushing if it were possible. "And we could continue our talk from earlier."

"Good idea," I said, shielding Jake from view with my body as best I could. "Let's run back now."

Before my feet could take one step back towards the house, though, Bella stopped me.

"There's that smell aga—," she said, her nose wrinkling in clear distaste, her eyes automatically looking for the source.

The world seemed to stop spinning on its axis for the long, pregnant moment when their eyes met. I tightened my hold on Bella, ready to run off with her the second the shapeshifter so much as twitched in our direction.

He didn't. He was as frozen as she was.

"Jake?" Bella asked softly.

I knew from the tone of her voice it wasn't recognition – at least, it wasn't the happy squeal she'd let out upon spying Garrett in our back lawn. This was tentative, unsure.

Leery.

Jake knew of no such distinctions, however. Both his thoughts and his face lit up for a fraction of a second – thrilled that she remembered him despite my assurances on our last meeting that she hadn't.

"Bella," he said, and even my frozen heart felt a pang at the joy in his voice.

When she didn't react, that bright, beaming smile slid straight off of his face. The only thing left was an icy, blank stare as realization hit him. She didn't know him after all.

 _She really is dead._

It was everything I could do to shield myself from the agony gripping Jacob as he stood unmoving in front of us. The worst pain I'd ever known was my transformation. What I felt from Jacob nearly rivaled it. Just like venom burn – it hit him everywhere at once and burned him from the inside out. All I could do was try to close my mind from his.

Bella turned to me and I could see the confusion in her eyes. "Is he all right?"

I nodded. "As all right as can be expected under the circumstances."

"Circumstances?"

"I told you, Bella. His pack, he and his shapeshifting friends, exist for a reason: to protect the tribe from vampires. Due to its nature, this area attracts us and has for centuries. Over the course of time, they found that their wolf-forms were well-equipped to take down vampires and that became their mission, and the trigger for a mostly dormant ability. If vampires enter the area, and stay for a protracted time, the change happens."

Bella was looking between Jake and me, wearing the same expression of interest she'd worn when I'd told her about her life; interested but in no way personally connected.

"That's right." Jake said at last, apparently my explanation had given him the time to collect himself. I could hear the hard edge in his voice as he masked the pain, but I was fairly sure Bella couldn't.

"Your. When you disappeared. That's when I changed. I'd felt it coming on slowly – do you remember how short my temper was that last week? Before you...?"

I winced away from the pain and guilt of that thought – the moments before he knew Bella's fate when he'd been thinking that he'd forced her away with his temper and distance.

"No, I'm sorry," Bella said as if apologizing for being late for an appointment. "I don't remember anything from my human life, not really." She smiled sweetly at him, sincerely. "We were close friends, though, I know that."

Jake's thoughts were on broadcast again, and the rollercoaster of them was almost nauseating. All the pain of before was gone, replaced by joy that he'd jumped to conclusions again and been wrong. He wanted her to have kept some part of him, even in this life he detested, that he was grasping any any hint that she had.

I was grateful Jasper wasn't out here with me – he'd have killed Jake himself just to stop the mood swings.

He smiled at Bella, then shot a smug 'I told you so' at me. I could almost hear the ominous music cue up around us. "You do?"

"Yes." Bella agreed, utterly unaware of the tension surrounding us, "Edward told me about it when he told me about my human life."

It felt like the whole forest went still in the seconds that followed.

" _Edward_ told you?"

Bella nodded and I felt her hand slip into mine. From the tightness of her grip, I thought she might finally sense the strain of the encounter. "I asked him what he knew about my life here before."

"And you asked...you asked him? What could he possibly know about you, Bella? "About your life? I've known you since we were kids splashing around the tidal pools while our fathers fished together. I know everything about you...everything."

She shook her head. "Not everything. You don't know me now."

I felt the stab and sting from where I stood. Anyone looking at his face would have felt the same, no special abilities needed.

"I know enough," he said with a disdainful look that took in the vampiric nature of the woman at my side, lingering on her eyes.

"Relax," I said softly, trying to diffuse the situation. "It's not as if she could have stopped by for coffee to discuss it with you."

Jake just hissed at me. "Stay out of this, bloodsucker."

Bella gasped. "That's hardly necessary," she said with a scowl at Jake. "Name calling isn't going to get us anywhere. Listen, Jake," Bella implored and took a step towards him.

He backed up.

"Stay away from me," Jake hissed.

"I wasn't going to do anything to you," she insisted, "I'm just trying to explain. I'm sorry I don't know you, I wish I did. It sounds as though we were great friends."

"Were being the obvious word choice there."

"So there's nothing...we can't," Bella stopped, looking between the two of us. "You seem to have something of an acquaintance with Edward. There's no way we can have the same? Maybe you can tell me more about my life, the things Edward doesn't know? I'm just starting to realize how much I've missed in life, having no real friends."

I could feel the shell forming around Jake, hear him wrap himself in a protective cloak of talk and anger, his thoughts weaving a shield to block out the pain and desperation of just how much he'd missed her and the temptation of doing just what she'd suggested.

I could also hear the direction he was taking instead and tried to cut him off before he could get the words out.

"We should go. Clearly he—"

"You want to be friends?" Jake's deep voice, the volume of it, drowned mine out.

Unfortunately, Bella hadn't picked up on anything from him. Where his thoughts were a jumble, his face was blank as stone.

I pulled at her hand again. "Believe me, Bella, we should..."

"No, Edward. Jake clearly has something to say. Let him say it."

I sighed and had a fleeting wonder if she'd been this stubborn as a human. I somehow thought she might just have been.

I tugged at her hand again, thinking that maybe if I got her away from here by brute force, she could just be mad at me.

I couldn't budge her.

"So we can't be friends then? There's nothing to salvage at all?"

"No, Bella," Jake spat out. "I can be civil with them," he said with a hand wave in my direction, "but I can't with you."

"And why not?" she asked, and I was really tugging at her arm now. "We were friends once."

It was too late.

Jake shot her a look full of disdain and shook his head. "Because you're a monster now, Bella. My friend," he put extra emphasis on the word, "is dead."

His work done, his heart hardened, Jake turned and walked away, determined to stay strong until he was far enough away, until his thoughts were blank enough to phase.

At my side, Bella crumpled to the ground.

* * *

It wasn't anything to carry her home. Physically, at least.

Mentally, it was anguish with every step.

I berated myself continuously, for not pulling harder to get her away from him, to not have just stepped in and dragging her away before Jake could slap at her like that. Hell, I could have just screamed really loudly to drown out his words.

I irrationally cursed Alice for not warning me this was going to happen, irrational because I knew there was nothing she could have seen. She couldn't see the wolves for one; for another, no one was physically harmed. Disagreements didn't make it onto her radar.

"Edward?"

Bella's voice knocked me out of my internal monologue.

"I'm here, Bella. It's all right."

She squirmed a bit, and leery of her background and issues with personal space, I lowered her to her feet at once. I didn't set her away from me, just kept my arms loose around her. I wanted her to have the ability to get distance if she wanted, while knowing I wasn't pushing her away.

My efforts were clearly appreciated by the slight easing of tension in her shoulders and the fact she stayed where she was with her body pressed to mine.

"Do you think he's right?"

The immediate denial that sprung to my lips stalled there unspoken.

God. Of all the things she could have asked, why did she have to ask the one I was still struggling with myself?

"Bella," I began as my mind worked to form an answer.

"You do," she said softly. "You said as much, when you were explaining about the animals. That you didn't want to be a monster, right?"

"Bella," I tried again.

She straightened up, squaring her shoulders. There was even a ghost of a smile on her face. "It's all right. I'm not going to do that anymore. Right? You're going to take me hunting with your family, to teach me."

"I am, yes. Bella, I'm sorry he hurt you, that I didn't do more to stop him."

Her warm fingers came up and touched my lips. "Not another word. He didn't hurt me because it's not true, it's the past. I'm moving forward from it. I didn't know anything else. No one was there to teach me. But that's changed now." She nodded; it seemed more to herself than to me, like she was talking herself up before a big game. "That trip, the one you were planning before. That's still on?"

"Yes, it's still on. I'm sure they're all back at the house and eager to leave as soon as we're ready."

"Good. That's good. The sooner the better."

It was the first time since our initial meeting that I wished desperately to be able to see inside Bella's mind, to try and see through to the reasons behind the gleam in her eye. Whatever it was, it left an echo of foreboding in my stomach.

"We should get back to the house, though, so I can apologize for delaying everything." She was already walking in that direction, her brisk pace the equivalent of a human jog.

"You don't have anything to apologize for. Tanya owns that interruption, but as she excels at getting in the way, I doubt she'd apologize for it."

"Then why were you with her? It's pretty clear you didn't like her very much."

"I didn't, no." My normal instincts were to bat this topic of conversation away, but this was different. Bella had a right to know. Not to mention my eagerness for moving away from the monster discussion.

"Then why...," Bella got the blush-look on her face.

I hurried to answer before she could backpedal. "Tanya's quite...well, she's tenacious. When she gets an idea in her head, it's very difficult to get it back out again. When she wants something, she lets nothing get in her way."

"And she wanted you?" Bella guessed.

"She did. For decades she pursued me, showing up here, or when we were on vacation. Nothing would deter her, not statements that I wasn't interested, nothing. So I decided to take a different route. I'd give in, in the hopes that she'd realize after not too long that we were wholly incompatible."

"Let me guess, she didn't realize that?"

I smiled. "No, quite the opposite. It became her mission to change me. To help me see what we could be together." I paused and smiled. "By making sure my priorities and interests lined up with hers."

"That sounds like fun for you," Bella joked. "She didn't give up?"

"Not until she showed up and found you in my arms," I said. I stopped and tugged on her hand, turning her until she was exactly there, in the circle of my arms. "And even now I'm not sure she's not off plotting somewhere."

Bella's hands came up, linking around my neck. I felt her slight fingers playing with the hair at the nape of my neck and shivered as a ripple of pleasure went down my spine.

"You said something earlier," Bella said on a soft almost-whisper.

"Hmm?" I responded idly, too busy memorizing every curve and angle of her face and wondering what she'd do if I leaned in and kissed her.

"When Garrett was here. You called me your friend."

"And so you are, I hope." My response was whispered, my lips drawn to hers like magnets.

"We are," Bella agreed and I was heartened to hear the same breathlessness in her voice. "But I was thinking it might be something a little more than that. I mean, Garrett and I are friends, best of friends, but there's none of this..."

And then she rose up and touched her lips to mine.

It was the first time she'd taken the initiative, the first time she'd closed that distance herself. I felt the difference through every inch of my body. The kiss wasn't like any other we'd shared. Every time I'd leaned in to kiss Bella, it had been with restraint – I was so afraid I'd spook her away again.

With her onslaught, there was no time for restraint. I barely had time to register her lips on mine before her hands were in my hair, her legs around my waist, and her lips moving over mine. For once, I gave as good as I got. I let myself go, to kiss her, truly kiss her, with everything I felt for her.

She reacted in kind.

Soon, very soon, kissing wasn't enough. We wanted more than lips touching, hands clutching. I wanted to feel the soft of her skin under my fingertips. Again I was tentative, again Bella convinced me otherwise. Her nimble fingers ripped the shirt I was wearing straight down the back , pulling it off in tatters until my chest was bared to her eyes.

"So beautiful," she breathed while her eyes drank their fill.

My hands paused at the hem of the sweater she still wore.

"I want to see you, too," I whispered back, taking her lips in a quick peck of a kiss. I nipped at her lower lip. Long fingers stole under the sweater to smooth over her soft skin, learning her by touch before seeing with my eyes. As my hands moved higher, so did her sweater. Her breathless moans told me all I needed to know about the desirability of my actions.

My thumbs brushed the sides of her breasts...just as the phone in my pocket buzzed.

I ignored it and it stopped. I continued to let my fingers wander, sweeping the underside of her right breast, my lips still moving over her lips, her jaw, her throat.

My phone buzzed again.

"Sh-shouldn't you answer?" Bella said on a moan.

"It's only Alice, and if I answer she's going to stop me with some dire pronouncement about how I treat clothing," I said against her ear as my lips dropped butterfly kisses there.

Bella giggled and dropped her head to the side to give my hunting lips better access to her throat as her own fingers learned the contours of my chest with an almost aching thoroughness.

"All right then," she breathed as her palms flattened on my pectoral muscles, then moved to the smooth ridge of my stomach. "If you're su—"

"EDWARD ANTHONY. ANSWER YOUR FUCKING PHONE."

And just that fast, the mood was broken as surely as if she'd dumped a vat of ice water over us both.

"Alice," I called back, "you truly have the most spectacularly bad timing known to man."

My phone buzzed again. I sighed and answered it.

"You should be thanking me," she began without preamble. "I doubt Bella enjoys being groped in a forest of all places. Really, Edward, you should show a little more gallantry than that."

I looked at Bella, an eyebrow raised. She grinned back at me, eyes roving hungrily over my chest.

"You'd be wrong about that one, I'm afraid. She doesn't seem to mind it at all."

Alice merely sniffed in response and muttered something about like minds. "Then you should also be considerate of your poor, starving family. Unless you'd rather we went without you? Emmett's wasting away here and we didn't think he'd survive it if you...ah...carried on out there."

I snorted. "The amount of time we spent waiting while he and Rose...," I broke off, some of my courtly upbringing rearing its head enough to keep me from continuing that thought in front of a lady.

Still, though, Alice had a point – not that I'd ever admit that phrase out loud.

I looked over at Bella. "What do you think?"

I could watch the debate rage over her face. When the side that was on par with my baser instincts was winning, her eyes raked over my body with such intensity I could almost feel her hands on me again. When the side pushing for learning this new way of hunting won, her eyes migrated back over my shoulder. Back towards Jake...and determination to prove him wrong was almost as strong in her expression as the desire had been.

As I said, it wasn't difficult to read her, even with her silent thoughts.

I took a step forward. "We've got all the time in the world, Bella. For this." I drew my fingertips down her arm so there would be no question of what I meant.

She smiled, wide and mischievous. "We answered the question then?"

"Which question?" I asked, puzzled.

"Of whether or not I'm a friend or..." I had to suck in a breath as her fingers stroked over my stomach, "...or something more?"

"I think that's definitely been answered. You're everything to me, Bella."

And to prove it, I darted forward, cupped my hand behind her neck, and pulled her forward into my arms. My lips were on hers in a crushing kiss before she could even gasp in a breath.

It didn't take us long to reach the flashpoint we'd been at just moments before when Alice interrupted us. Something about her, about us, seemed to combust at the slightest touch. If this kept up, we'd risk setting the forest surrounding us on fire.

"Does that mean we're hunting without you?" Alice asked from right behind us.

Bella jumped in my arms and then laughed. "Does she do that a lot?" she asked, smiling up at me.

"All the time," I agreed with a nod over Bella's head for my sister. "You'll get used to it."

Bella turned then, but stayed in my arms, and regarded Alice curiously. "Why are you carrying a shirt?"

"Because I know Edward, and he'd want a shirt during the run to Goat Rocks. He's nothing if not proper about appearances. I think it's a by-product of when he was raised. They were such sticklers for propriety back then."

Bella turned back to me. "When was this?"

I shrugged. "I was born in 1901."

Her little nose wrinkled right up.

"What's that look for?"

"You're very old, aren't you?"

I couldn't help but grin back. "Positively ancient," I agreed. Without a thought for my sister standing there, I cupped Bella's face in my hands and leaned in to kiss her again.

"Not to be a supreme killjoy," Alice called out before my mouth could make contact, "but I still see us all hunting together, so no one's decisions have changed. And I'd just as soon get the hunt over with. Jazz's taking me line dancing afterwards."

Bella looked from me to Alice and back again. I chuckled. "Jasper was born in Texas, and apparently even immortality comes second to Texan."

The idea was still clearly a novelty to Bella. "I still don't understand how you can be so close. To humans, I mean. Without…well, without feeding."

"It's still a struggle for us, believe me."

"It's rougher for Jazz, he spent his first century feeding only on human blood, and never with any real discretion. Instant gratification; he didn't know any other way. Around human scents he's accustomed to, like at school? He's fine. But if we're going to be in close proximity to lots of unfamiliar scents, well, we keep that to nights when we're fresh from the hunt. It makes it easier for everyone."

I was watching Bella while Alice explained and saw some of the tension leave her shoulders. I supposed it would be a relief to her, thinking she wasn't the only one in the family struggling. I didn't have the heart to tell her that it had been close to 70 years since Jasper had tasted human blood.

Alice's eyes went unfocused for a moment and she nodded to herself. "I don't know about you, but all this talk about blood isn't making my thirst any better. I'll go tell everyone we're still hunting and meet you back at the house."

She got fifty yards away before she stopped and turned to look at us. "You're still coming?"

I turned to look at Bella, tipping her chin up so I could look into her eyes. "What do you think? You still want to go? We have," I stopped, smiled, "all the time in the world to pick up where we left off before Alice so rudely interrupted."

"Hello? I'm right here, you know," Alice piped up.

We both ignored her.

Bella's hand went to my cheek, her fingers tracing under my eyes, over my eyebrows, seeing irises that had shifted from golden to black with the rising thirst.

"Hunt," she said at last. "As you said, we have all the time in the world for," she paused this time, her slight pink tongue darting out to moisten diamond-hard lips, "for the rest."

"Damn right," a booming voice sounded behind us. "So let's get moving before all the good grizzlies are taken."

I looked around, not surprised that I hadn't heard my family arriving. I did tend to get more than a little absorbed around Bella.

Bella blinked. "Grizzlies?"

"Sure," I nodded, shrugging into the shirt Alice had brought and Esme now held out to me – her sense of propriety was even more defined than mine. "We do manage some fun sprinkled in with the deer and the elk."

Bella nodded, sure of her course. "Let's go then," she said, her hand slipping into mine.

I felt only a tremor of unease as I looked into her bright red eyes. Unease and the echo of Tanya's voice:

 _You think she'll just nod once and accept an elk as substitute for a warm, tasty human just because of your dietary choices when the thirst is raging again and there's a human nearby?_

I'd never been much for listening to Tanya's venom, and I wasn't about to start now. But the words stayed with me through the run towards Rainier. I told myself that starting with carnivores, even omnivores like the bears, would help the transition. Hadn't I found it so in my own beginnings? The pull of a meat-eater was always so much stronger than that of any herbivore.

There were always a few cats around Goat Rocks; I was sure I'd be able to find one, to steer Bella there and give her an early success.

It would be fine. Just fine.

I was certain of it.

* * *

Cue ominious music...


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N: Same disclaimer goes – not my characters, I only own what they're doing in this story_

I'd never been much for listening to Tanya's venom, and I wasn't about to start now. But the words stayed with me through the run towards Rainier. I told myself that starting with carnivores, even omnivores like the bears, would help the transition. Hadn't I found it so in my own beginnings? The pull of a meat-eater was always so much stronger than that of any herbivore.

There were always a few cats around Goat Rocks; I was sure I'd be able to find one, to steer Bella there and give her an early success.

It would be fine. Just fine.

I was certain of it.

My optimism carried me all the way to the edge of the forest surrounding Mt. Rainier. It was one of our favorite places to hunt. We didn't come here often, only when we wanted to get a little variety from the limited game around Forks. After all, it wasn't every day some part of the country found themselves with a mountain lion/bear/cougar problem that needed our help.

The forest around us started to thin somewhat as we neared the area well off the more populous hiking trail. I was listening to the thoughts of my family while we hunted – well, I was listening to Alice's thoughts, anyway. Though we knew the paths to take, the ones that would keep us from accidentally crossing paths with anyone, there was always the random hiker who strayed well off the trails.

Normally that was nothing more than inconvenience.

For this run, however, I kept my mind tuned to Alice's as I never had before. I also kept it tuned to the sounds around me in dreaded anticipation of hearing a stray human thought. Alice, for her part, had her mind as open to her visions as ever, focused almost entirely on Bella; it seemed neither of us wanted a repeat of our last trip into a forest together.

As it was before, Alice hadn't seen anything – just a successful hunting trip and she and Jasper off dancing afterwards. Neither of us relaxed, however. Since her visions tended to triggered more by potential danger to the family, the fact she hadn't seen anything wasn't a clean slate.

If this went poorly, none of us would be in danger.

The same couldn't be said for any humans in the area.

I refused to thing that way, though. It just wasn't going to happen. Bella's determination was practically radiating off of her. Even without the benefit of her thoughts, I could see it in the bright twinkle of her smile, her musical laugh. And the way she kept constantly looking back at me as we ran and asking if we were there yet.

I was still laughing, even after the twentieth time she'd asked me.

"Nearly," I called back. "Anxious, are you? Or just thirsty?"

"Neither," she grinned at me, stopping her run to turn a cheeky little smile on me. "Well, a little anxious maybe. But not for food."

I slowed my pace to hers once I'd caught up. "Then what are you anxious for, Bella?"

Her grin widened into a wicked little smile. "We left some unfinished business to come on this trip. I'd like to get back to it sooner rather than later."

Just one comment, one quirk of her full lips, and she had me ready to scoop her back up into my arms and saying the hell with the god damned hunt.

"No, you don't," she said on a laugh. "I can see what you're thinking by the look in your eyes and there's no way. We're here now, let's hunt. Then we can take time on the other." Her hand raised and a delicate fingertip traced my lower lip. "Lots and lots of time."

She was just turning back to start running again when I darted forward to grab her from behind. My arms wrapped around her, pressing her back to my front. I nuzzled my nose into her hair, allowing my lips to find the base of her neck. "You started this, Bella."

"I did," she laughed, and I was heartened to hear a breathless note to her laughter. "Am I terrible for doing so?"

My hands settled onto the slight swell of her hips. "Not at all. It's nice, knowing you're just as affected as I am."

She turned in my arms. "I'm very, very affected, Edward," she said on a soft whisper as our eyes connected and held.

I don't know how long we stayed in our pseudo-embrace, but I realized after some time that the family had gone on without us. I wasn't worried, as we normally separated a bit when we hunted, them to their pairs and me alone. Even after all these years, there was a territorial streak to a vampire while hunting. Human or animal, we were predators and we tended to get testy if someone other than a mate butted into what we'd claimed.

I explained that to Bella when she asked if we should try to catch up.

"I think they wanted to give you some privacy, too."

"Privacy?" Bella didn't stop walking, but she turned her head towards me, her expression confused then her face brightened in the non-blush. "Oh…you mean…?"

I laughed when I realized her misunderstanding. "No, not because of that. This is your first time hunting this way. They didn't want you to feel any added pressure of having the whole family watch while you did it."

"This is silly. I mean, don't you just...hunt? Blood is blood, right? It shouldn't matter the source."

"It's not that simple, not for some. We all awakened to this life differently. Some of us, like Alice, Rosalie and Carlisle, have never tasted human blood, so they knew no other way. Then there's Jasper, who spent his first ninety years feeding off of humans and had to learn how to redirect his instincts."

I hated myself for making it sound so easy, like it was nothing more than tuning a radio to a different station, but I was determined to give her confidence going in.

"And the rest of you?"

"You know my past, the others are variations of the same. Esme and Emmett had a difficult time with their newborn years, as well. Not as dramatic as my grand, stomping exit from Carlisle's life, but still bumps in the road of learning how to control their instincts. Eventually, though, we all came to be what we are now. Strictly vegetarian, in a vampire sense."

Bella was quiet for a while as we walked. Unfortunately her face was blank as she worked through all I'd told her and I hadn't an inkling of the direction her thoughts were taking. I wished, for the hundredth time, that I could see into her closed mind for just a moment to hear beyond her silence.

"So this shouldn't be a problem at all then," she said finally.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because it seems to me that what it comes down to is mind over matter. I want to change, want it more than I want just about anything right now," she stopped and turned to smile at me. "Well, almost anything."

I squeezed her hand to let her know she wasn't alone in the wanting, already thinking of a hiking cabin Emmett and I had found on the south face of Rainier. And the very distinct possibility of delaying our return trip to Forks for a few hours…or a few days.

"You have a very wicked grin on your face, Edward Cullen," Bella teased, her hip bumping into mine. "Am I going to approve of the thoughts behind it?"

"I certainly hope s—" My body froze when a stirring of the breeze had my senses popping.

"Edward?"

I stopped walking and pressed a finger to my lips to quiet her, lest she scare the beast. "Can you smell that?"

Even as we'd walked and teased, I'd kept my senses tuned for an animal scent. At this point, any would have done. Luck was with me, though; the scent we'd stumbled on was not only fresh, it was from a cat. A big one.

Perfect.

"Smell what?" Bella whispered back, her whole body turning in a full circle, her pert little nose wrinkling as she searched.

I felt an ominous shiver down my spine. I ignored it.

"Try listening, then," I instructed. "The beat of his heart. It's more heavy, more of a thud than a thump like a human's."

Keeping to the path, we walked together slowly, softly through the surrounding forest – it gave us camouflage, but it also created warnings for the cat we stalked. The merest snapping of a twig could set it off into a run. If she hadn't caught the scent yet, she would feel no need to chase and we'd be back to square one.

"I hear him," she said at last, her voice almost too low for even my sensitive ears. "Just to the southwest, right?"

I nodded. "That's him. Now close your eyes, try to smell him. It's really no different than any other hunt, Bella," I said with my lips close to her ear, "you just have to recognize a different scent, let that one pull you."

She turned her head and smiled. "I won't be concentrating on the hunt at all with you breathing in my ear, Edward."

I smiled in return, but I wasn't feeling it. I was grateful her back was to me and as she only caught a glimpse of my face in profile; it made the non-smile easier to hide.

Because if Bella could laugh and tease with prey nearby, she was not focused on the hunt. Not by a long shot. The wet thud of the cat's heart, his intoxicating smell...my own thirst had risen almost to flash-burn in my throat and teasing was the last thing on my mind right now.

"Focus, Bella," I instructed.

"Edward?"

I'd wondered if she could hear the change in my voice, and I had my answer in her concerned look. "Your eyes are black. I didn't realize you were that thirsty. You should take this one, I'll..."

"No," I said, my voice sharp and impatient. "You should. I can hunt anything here. The cats are meat-eaters, the closest to human blood we get. Easier to track, to incite our thirst."

Bella's mouth opened and then snapped shut again.

I was afraid I knew what had stopped her from speaking – that she felt no pull whatsoever to the cat's heart or blood. That it was just another sound in the forest to her.

"Try. Focus. Really listen to him."

My hands were fists at my sides as I restrained myself from the pull, the burn, the awakening pain in my throat that demanded blood to ease it back again. I had suppressed my nature before, every day as I walked among humans, I could do it today in the presence of one mountain lion.

After a full minute, I finally felt a change in Bella. Eyes closed, she dropped low and let loose a soft hiss.

God, what I wouldn't give to hear into her thoughts in that moment.

I wiped the errant thought from my mind; now was not the time.

"Go whenever you're ready, I'll be right behind you."

It took her another few seconds, another beat of the heart we stalked, and then she was off like a gunshot. Her small body pushed through the flora with a burst of speed that startled the animal into a run.

I couldn't have chosen better. A running animal would trigger the predator as well as the thirst; both would work together and double her odds of success. Despite my own painful thirst, I was able to smile. Optimism flooded me.

This was going to work.

We were closing in on the cat. He leapt towards a rocky outcropping, big paws surefooted on the rocks as he looked for a sanctuary away from his pursuer. Bella kept pace with him easily, her fingers brushing one swish of his long tail. She missed when he unexpectedly pounced upwards and into the boughs of a large fir.

Fatal mistake.

Bella lunged after him, her jump high and agile, landing her on the same branch. She hissed when the cat turned to face her. Their eyes locked. I watched from the ground, looking up at my vampire as she stalked. I waited with breath held for her to move in.

Bella didn't move, didn't go in for the throat. Instead, her head cocked to the side.

The cat took a prowling step towards her. Still Bella didn't move. The chase was over, and so, it seemed, was her interest. The cat could have been a clump of dirt for all the appeal it held for her – she did not see it as food.

A smile lit her wide, hunter's eyes just as the wind freshened behind me. And I knew what had distracted her.

Fuck. Not now.

"Bella, no!"

My body darted forward, meaning to intercept her when she landed. I missed. Bella's jump was further than I'd anticipated and she landed five feet beyond me. I cursed myself ten different ways for not checking the area thoroughly before I started this; for letting myself get so excited over finding the cat that I forgot the basics.

I forgot to check for humans.

Fast as she was, though, strong with the lingering human blood in her tissues, I was faster. I also knew the area and the rock outcroppings; she didn't. Both were the only plusses in a situation fraught with potential disaster. I needed every advantage I could get because time was not on my side. The hiker we'd both sensed wasn't far down the trail.

In a last ditch attempt to buy us some time, I threw back my head and gave an almighty shout. I have no idea what it would sound like to human ears; I could only hope it would make the hiker decide this might not be the best trail to follow and to, perhaps, turn around and go back the way he came.

I never knew if it worked or not, not for sure, because my hand caught Bella's in that moment.

"Bella, stop. Stop!"

She tried to wrench her hand free, to continue her pursuit, but this time I held fast. I had one moment, one second to time this right. Not letting myself over think it, I released her hand and leapt forward.

This time, fate was on my side and I landed precisely where I wanted to be – directly in front of Bella, my arms outstretched to catch her. And catch her I did.

All right, it wasn't precisely a catch as Bella ran straight into me, but it served the same purpose.

The semantics didn't matter; stopping her did.

I used her forward momentum to spin us just slightly, enough to get her back pressed against the stone outcropping. Strong as she was, there was no way I'd be able to hold her without some counter-pressure to help me. My hands closed like manacles to her upper arms, pinning them to the rocks and keeping her from raising them in defense or attack.

I'd interrupted a predator mid-hunt. And she was pissed.

Her fingers ripped at my shirt, hands trying to raise to no doubt claw at my face. Her teeth bared as snarls tore up from her throat; she even lunged forward, snapping her jaw in the vicinity of my throat when she couldn't free her hands.

My grip remained strong and with nothing but rock at her back, she wasn't able to turn and twist her way away from me.

"Let go of me," she growled, her red eyes wide with what could only be bloodlust. "Mine."

"Bella, shhh. It's all right, it's all right."

My words felt hollow, even to my own ears. Nothing was all right about this. But I'd deal with the ramifications later. Right now, I just had to calm her down enough to get her way from any possible contact with the human.

After a few minutes, and a shift in the wind that erased all human scent. Her body started to relax. Her jaw unclenched, her breathing regulated and the growls stopped.

It was when reason returned to her eyes that I felt the punch through my own chest. This time I was grateful I couldn't hear her thoughts. The devastation on her face was bad enough.

"Oh my God. What have I done?"

Horror replaced reason, her face was riddled with it.

"You haven't done anything, Bella. It's all right, I stopped you."

Her head shook. "I almost. I couldn't stop...I didn't want to stop. The animal," she stopped and wrinkled her nose. "There was nothing, no desire, then I smelled..."

I saw the flash of want in her eyes, the way her tongue darted out to lick glass smooth lips – the actions of someone remembering a favorite meal in anticipation of having it again.

"Shh," I said again, and moved forward just enough to press my lips to her forehead. I relaxed my hold, pulling her into a hug instead. "It'll take—"

"No, it won't. I can't do this."

My gut twisted.

Her eyes raised towards mine and the anguish in them nearly had me falling to my knees in shared pain.

"Jake was right."

"No!" My vehement answer did nothing to assuage the ache in her eyes.

"He was. So was Tanya...so were you. I'm a monster, a killer. I felt nothing for that human, Edward. Nothing but wanting, none of the remorse or compassion you and your family talked about. There was nothing for the cat, I chased him, but wanted nothing of him once I caught him. Nothing like..."

"Bella..."

"No," she said softly. "Let me go."

"Bella, please. This was just the first..."

"LET ME GO!"

The scream assaulted my ears and mind, to the point I was blown backwards a few steps. Those steps were all the space she needed.

She turned and ran from me, not once looking back.

I was too stunned to follow.

* * *

In the week that followed, my life slowly went back to something resembling normal.

As normal as a vegetarian, centenarian vampire who's lost his reason for existing can have, anyway.

I went to school with my brothers and sisters, pretended to pay attention in class. I spent my evenings reading and playing piano, listening to the lives and loves of my family go on around me.

But where my life had once been a content existence, if not a particularly happy one, it was now empty. Blank.

Bella was gone, and I was growing more and more positive every day that this time she wasn't coming back.

I hadn't waited for my family to finish their hunt. Once my stunned disbelief at Bella's departure had waned, I'd simply texted Alice and my father two words: _heading back._ I wouldn't ruin their plans with the disastrous turn of my own.

I'd harbored one hope on the run back home from Rainier. That this time, just as with the last time she'd run away, I'd find her back at the house waiting for me. It was a vain hope.

As was the hope that I'd catch her scent in the forest surrounding our house.

The only scents in our bit of the forest were the elk and deer that lived there.

My sister couldn't see her in our lives again, couldn't see anything regarding Bella.

I don't know what my expression had been when Alice had thought that, but it must have been bad. Because a second later she was crouching in front of me, her hands on mine. "That doesn't necessarily mean anything, Edward, just that wherever she is, she hasn't made any decisions."

I was fairly sure my sister was wrong, though. That Bella had made her decision; a decision that turned her future into a Cullen-free existence.

She was gone, and she wasn't coming back.

Esme, ever the optimist, had told me to not give up hope just yet. That it had only been a week.

Didn't she know how long a week was?

Then she told me to be patient.

I was starting to hate that word again.

"You know, little brother, you're seriously starting to drag everyone down again."

I turned to glare at Emmett. Even though immortaily-wise I was ten years his senior, he had forever decided to ignore that. He'd been twenty when Carlisle had saved him from a bear attack, and already the size of a mature tree trunk. Ergo, he'd listed himself as my older brother and brooked no correction on the subject.

Normally, I bristled at the nickname. These days, though, I could barely scrounge up a snort.

We were walking slowly back towards the house after hunting, none of us in any great hurry to get back because our mother and sisters had decided to take advantage of the weather and head to Seattle for a shopping day since we'd be out of school due to sun.

Or maybe this was the real reason – get Edward out into the forest and give him a figurative kick to get his head out of his ass.

On further thought, I thought the latter was probably the most likely.

Regardless, I couldn't have cared less.

"I'm sorry if the woman I love running off for God knows where and never to come back again is making your life a little less a slice of heaven than it usually is, Emmett. I'm surprised you haven't bribed Jasper to manipulate me into a better frame of mind if it bothers you so much."

"He did," Jasper broke in. "But I refused."

"Why?"

"Because of the word you just used. Manipulate. My gift comes in useful in tense situations and that's when I prefer to use it – I'm not a fan of becoming a vampire anti-depressant."

Emmett snorted. "Still think it wouldn't hurt. The kid's face is so long these days, his chin's dragging on the ground. He'll have bugs crawling in there if he's not careful."

"Charming as ever," I snorted.

I didn't like that I was pulling my family down, no matter what I'd said to Emmett. I loved them, of course I didn't want them mired in what plagued me. I also know that the only way to truly alleviate it for them was to leave.

And that just wasn't going to happen. Not yet.

I knew from Carlisle that what had happened to me days ago, when I'd held Bella on the front lawn and felt myself almost drown in her very presence, had been not only life-altering but permanent. No matter where I went or what I did with the rest of my eternity, I would always carry these feelings, this love for Bella, with me.

 _When change comes to us, Edward, it's irrevocable._

Great.

"Edward," Jasper said softly and I knew he felt just what I did. The dread in my stomach as the abyss of a life without my love stretched before me.

"Not apologizing, Jazz."

"Didn't expect you to, none of us do, really. If anything, we're all carrying a massive amount of guilt around."

That much I knew. The pity that had radiated from the eavesdroppers in the house after Carlisle'd told me the "good" news had been so intense, I'd taken to blocking my mind from their thoughts most of the time. Because if I heard one more "poor Edward" thought, I might actually turn violent.

They'd had those thoughts before, of course, paired off as they were while I went about my life alone. I hadn't minded then, because I'd preferred my life as it was – free to carry on my own pursuits without interruption. Even when I'd been with Tanya I hadn't minded – because then they were too busy being terrified that I _would_ fall in love with her.

I'd had a few encounters during my rebellious teenage years, too. They'd been fun in the present, meaningless in the long term, and had contained no one that had come close to touching my heart.

Nothing had, or would ever come close to the emotions I now held for Bella. And would for the rest of my life.

Christ, I was starting to annoy myself with the angst. No wonder Emmett and Jasper had decided to bring me out her to kick some sense into me.

"Yes, I know," I told him. "Pity and guilt for poor loveless Edward."

"It's not—"

What Jasper thought it was, though, I never found out.

Because just then Emmett stopped walking and went statue still. He was a good fifty yards ahead of us, but we could see and feel the reactions just fine from where we were.

Jasper and I froze, both of us focusing our talents on him. I heard Jasper's mind catalogue Emmett's emotions first – shock, surprise, and...thirst? – before I turned my mind to his for the thoughts behind those feelings.

The light breeze that alerted him finally reached us – and made my reading of his thoughts utterly unnecessary.

Blood. Human blood.

Not the appetizingly wet thud of it as it pulsed through the veins of a backwoods camper crossing our path by accident. That wouldn't have caused any reaction at all in us, well, maybe in Jasper.

No, this was fresh, but it was spilled blood. It was too strong, almost overpowering to be blood contained within a human body.

We stood staring at one another for a full second before we started running. Not sure if there was anything we could do for whatever incident had befallen the poor human. But Carlisle Cullen was our sire, after all, and Esme our mother. If someone was hurt, it was ingrained in us to try and help.

We didn't need to run far before we came across the source.

"Should I call Carlisle?" Jasper asked when our run came to a stop, just at the edges of a small meadow in the middle of the forest.

There was a tent, or the remnants of one, ripped to shreds under the shelter of a wide, full fir tree. A man's body was clearly visible – or at least his arms and legs were.

"Don't bother," Emmett said. "Bear attack. Nothing left to help. That much blood and that many rips? He's gone. Even Rosie couldn't run him back in time."

The bitterness in Emmett's voice wasn't surprising – Emmett was one of the more easy-going people I'd ever met, except when it came to the one fight he lost. The bear that had nearly killed him, and would have if Rosalie hadn't been there to save him.

Jasper's head cocked to the side. "I'm not so sure about that. There's something..."

I didn't hear anything and by the look of confusion on his face, neither had Emmett. But I could hear Jasper's thoughts – and felt the panic radiating from the clearing just as he did. Panic, sorrow, fear.

I also felt something else. That sense of thirst again.

But it wasn't coming from Emmett as I'd thought when my brother had first gone still.

It was coming from the scene of the attack. I listened as Jasper tried to pinpoint the source.

 _Above? In the tree?_ I heard him think.

My eyes searched the boughs, my mind cast out for whatever thoughts were behind it, but there was nothing.

Nothing.

Surely if someone else had stumbled onto this scene I'd hear...

Nothing!

I narrowed in again, searching the branches, my breathing quickened in anticipation.

And then I saw it on a branch just fifteen feet above the mangled tent.

Not it. Her.

"Bella," I breathed, too low for my brothers to hear.

I had no more registered that after a week of searching I'd stumbled onto her utterly by accident when another sound made itself known across the clearing.

The fast, thready beat of a human heart.

"There's a survivor," Emmett announced; he leapt onto the stump of a fallen tree to get a better perspective. "Can you hear it?"

"What?" Jasper said, stunned. "How?"

"No idea, but I can see her now. She's staring up into the tree," he sounded confused by that. "That's weird. Bears don't climb trees. Maybe one of Edward's mountain lions followed him home?"

"It's not a cat in the tree," I said softly, not wanting my voice to carry anywhere but to Emmett and Jasper's ears.

"How do you know?" Emmett pressed.

"Because I can see what she's looking at." And nothing on this earth would be able to pry my eyes away.

There was a beat of silence, then Emmett snorted. "Any time you feel up to sharing, let us know."

"He doesn't have to," Jasper said. Apparently, he'd been able to pinpoint the source of the thirst as well. Maybe because he still had an affinity for it? "Look at the branch about twenty feet off the ground."

I heard it in his thoughts the second he saw her. _Little nomad's not so gone after all._

Their comments, their thoughts, everything about them was filtering away – my mind was focused on the vampire in the tree, while her eyes zeroed in on the survivor on the ground.

Her body trembling so hard, that the very limb she stood on was vibrating from the force of it.

I looked closer, narrowing my eyes to see through the needles on the fir tree to Bella's face, just needing to see her again after so long separated.

My gasp was audible when I finally found it among the branches.

I'd only ever seen that look on Bella's face once – in the memory Garrett had showed me from the day he found Bella.

Whatever had happened at this clearing, Bella was terrified.

It took no more than that thought to register and I was running flat out into the clearing towards her, the survivor forgotten, the body of the mauled camper forgotten.

All I knew was my nomad.

* * *

Endnote: There was a review from last chapter that mentioned Edward giving his virginity to Tanya. I realized that I hadn't made it clear that that wasn't the case, so I included a reference to Edward's rebellious years and that he had relationships, however shallow, during that time. This isn't Stephenie Meyer's Edward – and he didn't have any compunction to hold on to his virginity.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N: Standard disclaimer time. The characters aren't mine, just what they do in this story._

I'd only ever seen that look on Bella's face once – in the memory Garrett had showed me from the day he found Bella.

Whatever had happened in this clearing, Bella was terrified.

It took no more than that thought to register and I was running flat out into the clearing towards her, the survivor forgotten, the body of the mauled camper forgotten.

All I knew was my nomad.

There was no indication that she'd seen us, no gasp from her or turn in our direction anyway. If her thoughts were in any way registering our appearance, they remained a mystery to me.

Thoughts or no, my path was clear. There was only one thing to be done in this situation – get to Bella as soon as possible. The rest, I figured, would come to me.

With this in mind, I took one huge leap when the tree was still ten feet away. I'd spent enough time jumping into and around trees in this forest that I had a better-than-average sense of timing and direction. I landed neatly right on the limb where Bella perched, huddled and trembling. I moved quickly to position myself between her and the survivor, breaking the eye lock.

"Bella?"

Her eyes stayed fixed on the spot, or maybe her body was just frozen in shock. Maybe both.

"Bella, love?"

The breeze carried her whisper. "Edward?"

"Yes, it's me," I said, relief in every cell of my being. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"G-girl. B-blood," she said on a stutter that reminded me very much of the first days she'd come into my life.

I didn't dare risk a look towards the scene below us; I was too afraid of Bella darting away from me. I listened with my mind instead.

"Yes, and Emmett and Jasper are taking care of her," I said in my most calming voice. My brother's thoughts behind me told me everything I needed to know; their discovery of the survivor, a young girl and their plans to get her away from here. I could also hear her thoughts, though the phrase she kept repeating made absolutely no sense to me – _Not me too_. Over and over she said it, like her mind was stuck on that one thought, unable to move on. Jasper was tossing around the word catatonic in his mind.

"Get her to Carlisle," I said over my shoulder before returning to my Bella.

"See, it's fine. They've got her and they'll take her away."

Bella was shaking her head. "Not. I didn't." She raised panicked eyes to mind and I was nearly knocked from my perch to find them black with thirst. "I didn't," she repeated.

"I know," I soothed. "It was a bear, you left the girl alone." I don't know how. Even after decades of abstinence we were all feeling the burn. Jasper felt it worse, of course. With his thoughts so focused on the young girl's panic, it wasn't as all-consuming as it could have been, though, I didn't relax until I heard Jasper and Emmett clear the meadow.

"I couldn't. I haven't."

Bella's voice brought my attention immediately back to her.

My hands took her cheeks, forcing her black eyes to mine. I didn't see the near-feral Bella I'd encountered when she first showed up in a thunderstorm I did wondered, however, if sometime in the last week apart, she'd lost her words again.

"It's all right. Relax, shhhh." I tried to calm her. I kept my arms open if she wanted to come into them.

To my everlasting joy, Bella moved towards me. Inch by painstaking inch until she'd crossed the distance entirely. "Th- the girl. Th-the man. Her father." Bella was trembling in my arms to the point the entire tree was starting to shake from it.

"He was her father," I repeated, my voice soft and steady against her ear. "How do you know that?"

"Heard her. Calling. Daddy."

She stopped speaking, her breath seemed to have caught in her throat. I ran my hand along her spine, trying to soothe her into sentences. "Its all right, you don't have to tell me everything now. Just relax, settle down a bit. Shall we walk a bit, maybe? Clear our heads?"

That's what I said. What I thought was _Get away from all the blood._ Spilled or no, it was still overwhelming.

"You're not...won't leave?"

I barely managed to not snort when she asked that. Leave? I wouldn't even if I could.

"No," I said evenly. I held her face in my hands to make sure she saw me, that there wasn't a drop of dishonesty on my face. "I won't leave you, Bella."

Bella considered that for a moment and then nodded. She extricated herself from my arms and dropped down to the forest floor. Her eyes raised at once, watching my every move, waiting for me to join her. I did a mere half-second later, landing right by her side. Taking her hand while we walked had become so ingrained in me it was now an automatic gesture. I didn't realize I'd even done it until we were a good hundred yards away from the grisly scene.

As Bella didn't seem to mind, I didn't release it and kept hold. After a week's absence, I needed this connection.

We walked for a long time in silence. Every now and then Bella's fingers would tighten on mine, frustrating me as I couldn't hear the reason behind it. Still, though, I remained silent. This was her trauma. I'd let her tell me about it in her own time. She was back, I could see her and touch her again, for those gifts I could wait a few minutes, or hours, for her to tell her story.

She stopped when we reached the cliffs edge of the forest. Fifty feet below us waves crashed against stone. It wasn't the more calming sound of waves on the beach. The cliff waves beneath us were more hearty, more violent, as if they were hell-bent on making their mark on the rock walls in their path.

I wondered if she was going to continue walking us down the cliffs, and was about to ask, when she turned to look up at me at last.

"Edward," she said, then took a deep breath. I was thankful the shudder I'd heard in her voice earlier was gone. Whatever else our walk had done, it calmed her considerably. "When I ran off," she started.

I stopped her with a shake of my head. "Bella, no. That's not important. You don't have to—" I didn't get to finish because her fingers were pressed to my lips.

"Now it's you turn to shhh, all right? Please, let me tell this my way?"

I nodded because I wasn't capable of denying her much. All right, I wasn't capable of denying her anything.

"When I left," she began again. "I think that was the lowest I've ever been. Lower than when I first woke up, terrified and alone. Worse than the loneliness I'd feel when I'd hear other nomads running together, laughing and talking. All I could think of was that I'd disappointed you. The thought ate at me."

It took everything I had to keep my promise and not break in to reassure her that she hadn't.

"As I ran, I thought about you, your comfort and your arms and how safe I felt there. It was the only thing that kept me going – I was able to draw on it, Edward. To remember how it felt, being with you, even in those first days when I was still…well, when I wasn't quite me yet. Then I remembered something else. Something from my transformation; I remembered wishing someone was there with me, someone whom I'd always trusted to take the pain away."

She stopped and looked up at me. "I remembered my father."

My hands clutched her a little tighter. From my initial research into Bella's human life before she'd disappeared, that was a constant. Bella had come back into her father's life late, sent here by her mother – a flighty woman from what I'd heard in the other residents' thoughts. It hadn't seemed to matter at all how old she'd been when she arrived. From everything I'd heard, Charlie and Bella's relationship had been a close one. If I'd had any doubt about that, I merely had to look at the way he was now...

My eyes flew to Bella's. "My God, tell me you didn't try to see him..." We'd have heard, wouldn't we? If the Chief of Police had reported seeing his long-disappeared daughter?

Her own eyes widened at my reaction, her head shaking. "No, nothing like that. I just remembered him, Edward. Little bits and pieces, words he'd say. So I went in closer to Forks, stayed in the tree line, and watched him. I might not have any memories of him, but it didn't look right. His face was so long, drawn. So sad. And the way he walks. All hunched over?"

She seemed to be asking me rather than telling me, so I answered as best I could. "We didn't come here until after you disappeared, so I don't know for certain. As far as I know, all of that is relatively recent." _Like since he had to admit you were gone and weren't ever coming back._

Bella nodded, as if _she_ could hear _my_ thoughts; mostly likely, though, I had just confirmed her suspicions. "Then today, I was running...and I heard her in the woods," she began after a moment, "the girl. Then I heard the bear. She was calling out 'Daddy' and the bear was growling. I was well away from them, but the sounds were still agonizing. I couldn't take it, couldn't listen anymore. I couldn't stand by and do nothing. So I ran towards them, fast as I could. It…it wasn't fast enough. I heard her scream when the bear attacked, it was more…like she was crying and screaming at the same time. I heard him, too, the father? Telling her to get down, hide, play dead and not move. Then. Then he didn't say anything else."

I nodded as she spoke. The father had very possibly saved the girl's life with that information.

"When I got there, it was clear I was too late for him, for her father. The smell," she paused and shuddered, "it was everywhere by then. I could hear her heartbeat, too," another shudder. "It was fast, too fast. The adrenaline made it even worse, and I was so thirsty. But I couldn't. He was...he was her father. She...she was alone. I thought maybe…maybe…I could even the balance? My father lost a daughter, maybe I could save one?"

I could see it then, the Bella that had tried to reconnect with her past. She had found a reflection of her human life in the campers. My hand squeezed hers gently, my heart lifting in hope. And, at the very edges of that hope, I felt a ray of optimism. Was Bella no longer seeing humans as food?

"What did you do then?"

"By the time I broke through into the clearing, the father was already gone even though the bear was still at him, or maybe he smelled the girl, too. I tried to scare him off, ran straight to him and knocked him off the body. We tussled and he swiped at me a few times. He only got close once, managed to knock me down. I got right up and hit him back. He didn't like it. He growled at me but I didn't flinch, I just moved in closer, yelling right back at him. He was rearing up to growl again, so I jumped straight into the tree. I thought if I could get onto his back or something, I could get him out of there. He must've decided it wasn't worth it or something, because he ran off.

"Then it was just me and the girl in that clearing and I wanted... she looked so scared, Edward. Our eyes met, me in the tree, her on the ground, and I was so afraid I'd give in and feed, my body was shaking from it. I was petrified, so was she. I don't know how long we stayed like that; it seemed close to an eternity. That's when you and your brothers arrived and...and here we are."

I smiled and reached over to touch her cheek; rewarded when she leaned into it. "You did it, then. You balanced the scales back." My thumb brushed over the apple of her cheek. "Makes me very proud of you, Bella."

I could see a smile turning the corners of her lips even though her eyes were on her feet.

"One thing I don't understand, though," I asked. "You said you were thirsty. Why?"

Her eyes cast downwards. "I haven't eaten since…"

I knew what she'd been about to say. That she hadn't eaten since the camper near the cliffs when she'd run away from me the first time.

"Every time I tried I'd see your disappointment, Jake's anger, my father's worry. And I couldn't. Being around you, your family, I've stopped seeing them, humans, as food. I see the girl I used to be. I see my father."

I turned towards her. I brushed the hair from her face, tucking the tendrils behind her ear. I was heartened that my supposition was correct, that Bella's perception of people had changed. It opened up a new worry, though. My fingertips touched at the circles beneath her eyes. I didn't ask if she'd been able to hunt animals because the answer was in her black eyes.

"Bella," I sighed. "You can't do this, starve yourself like this…"

I broke off when Bella went rigid beside me.

"C-can we please talk about something else? Please, just until I forget…the smell back there? Because it's still, it's like I can still…and the burn it's so," she stopped again and this time she sniffed the air. "…oh God."

Bella was up like a shot. In the next second, she was off and running.

There was only one thing that would have Bella running flat out like that.

Blood.

Without pause I was up and after her, running fast as I could to close the distance. Branches and twigs broke from the impact against my face and body; I barely noticed. I was focused ahead with all of my being, trying to hear Bella. I was trying to figure out her path and cut it off before she could gain too much distance; to hear whichever human had spurred her this time; to pray to a God that had no doubt long since abandoned us to get me to her in time.

My mind was so busy inward with plans and worst-case scenarios that I lost track of the here and now...and nearly tripped over Bella when I finally caught up with her.

The sight that greeted me was so unexpected, my mind didn't accept it.

Bella was on the ground with a now-still elk under her lips.

Elk.

Not human.

Enhanced as my vampire mind was, this information took forever for me to process.

Not human. Elk.

My brain didn't reboot itself out of the loop until Bella looked up at me. She'd shoved the dead animal's carcass away. Her eyes had lost the black and, while not golden, the red was not as deep, not as prominent. They were a deep orange, the color of sunset on a clear day.

"Edward?" She said softly, pulling me from my reverie.

"Bella," I replied on a breath. I tried to rehinge my jaw.

"I did it," she said, her smile widening at her success.

"You did," I agreed. I wondered idly if I'd ever be able to form more than one or two word sentences again.

Then she launched herself at me, up and off the forest floor and straight into my arms. The force of her impact was so unanticipated, I was caught unprepared and fell backwards under her. Our bodies hit the ground with a thud that must have caused a tremor to register somewhere. Neither of us cared a damn.

We were laughing, both of us, deep laughs that shook our whole bodies and caused wide smiles to stay plastered to our faces.

Our celebration went of for quite some time. Both of us laughing and hugging, we repeated the assurances that she had done it to each other whenever we had breath to speak. I couldn't remember a time joy had filled me so completely; had spread through every inch of my body. I didn't think anything ever had; I suspected nothing ever would.

When the laughter subsided we were still embraced, laying on the forest floor with Bella across my chest. Her legs were bent, knees straddling my hips. There was nothing romantic, or even sexual about our position. It was more a horizontal hug than anything else. I looked up into her eyes and reached up a finger to touch the corner of one.

"Are you still thirsty?"

"Not oppressively so, no..." She broke off eye contact with me and looked around. "I want to make sure."

"Make sure?" I quirked a brow at her.

"That this wasn't a fluke, because I was so thirsty" she said on lowered lashes. "That this isn't a premature celebration."

I nodded, understanding. She wanted to make sure she could do it again on purpose this time.

Slowly, we extricated ourselves from each other and I brushed the brambles and leaves from our clothes and hair. "It will take us a while to run back to Rainier," I said, mind already plotting the best route from here.

"Rainier? Why so far away?"

"Because the odds of finding a carnivore here are so much more rare. They do wander in from time to time, but that's the exception, not the rule."

Bella shook her head. "No, Edward. I'm going to hunt here, right here. With whatever we find here."

"It would be easier..."

She took another step forward and pressed her fingers to my lips. "No," she repeated, "I don't want easy. I want what I'd be hunting if I..."

"If you..?" I prompted.

"If I stayed," she said as her eyes fixed on mine.

It took no more than a second for that to process through my mind. If she stayed. With us...with me.

That joy I thought I'd never feel the equal of just moments before? I'd been wrong. This feeling surpassed that one in spades. Even though I knew my stone body to be fixed firmly on the ground, knew my long-dead heart to be incapable of motion; that knowledge ceased to matter. All that mattered was what I felt – and I felt like I was flying.

Feeling lighter than I in days, even weeks, I turned towards the forest, Bella's hand in mine, and started searching for prey.

It didn't take us long. The lush greenery of the Olympic Peninsula meant it was the perfect environment for herbivores like elk and deer. They thrived here amidst the abundant food supply, which, in turn, made it a haven for hunters as well.

All types of hunters. Even those whose weapons of choice were teeth rather than guns.

We found a small herd of mule deer a few miles from the cliff face. Some drank from the small brook running through the clearing; others fed on the tall grasses and flowers that grew in the occasional sunshine that the meadow provided.

"Bella?" I asked when she went silent and still next to me.

She didn't respond save a tiny shake of her head.

I abided her wishes and dropped her hand. I stepped to the side, wishing for at least the hundredth time that I could see, just once, inside her mind. Instead, I was forced to watch, and wait, as Bella stood statue still next to me. I could see nothing on her blank face, just her small, pink tongue darting out to moisten glass-smooth lips.

Dread formed a pit in my stomach the longer she stayed motionless beside me. With every ticking second she didn't spring on the idle deer, I felt again the fear that Bella wasn't capable of adapting to this life; not without starving herself.

Again, I had to ask myself. Did I want that for her? Was I selfish enough to want to save myself the agony of living without her that I'd force her to keep herself on the brink of starvation in order to survive?

I knew I wasn't. I knew I'd never be able to endure her suffering in any way. I'd just have to—

-to watch as she tore off from my side like she'd been shot from a cannon.

I was too stunned to move. All I could do was watch as Bella ripped into the clearing and straight at the big buck by the brook. Her lips were fastened on his throat before he knew what hit him, and they both went down in a thud that scattered the other deer into the brush.

I stayed where I was until I saw the buck stop moving, knowing his death had come quickly as she'd drunk deep from his throat. When I saw the voracity of her feeding start to ebb, I walked towards her on feet that felt almost winged and a mind whirring with half-formed hopes for the future.

She looked up when she saw me approach. The elation inside of me was mirrored in her eyes, still sunset orange.

Her expression said, I did it.

Mine responded, I always knew you could.

We stood frozen, both of us, as our eyes caught and connected. It felt like the world around us stopped moving. There was nothing in that moment, just Bella and me. It was the most natural thing in the world for her to get up and walk towards me.

It was perfectly normal for her to step right into my arms.

And when our lips came together in a kiss, the fireworks that exploded inside me were, for the first time, eclipsed by a different sensation. One I hadn't felt in decades, since the day my adolescent rebellion ended.

I felt like I was coming home.

The kiss stayed that way, slow and sweet, while we both relished the homecoming of lips and tongues intertwined again in a seductive dance. Her taste flooded my senses, as did her scent; the feel of her body against mine was a delicious torment.

Slow and sweet didn't last long, however. Soft kisses took a harder edge. My hands, which had come up to frame her face, slipped into her hair, holding her mouth to mine. Her hands had been at my waist. Lost in the haze of her kiss, I hadn't felt her pull my shirt free; hadn't noticed until I felt her hands splayed against my back, fingernails running over the diamond-hard skin.

I broke my lips from hers, dragging them along her jaw to her ear. My teeth grazed the skin, nipped at her earlobe. My breath was soft, my voice husky against her ear when I spoke her name.

She responded with a low moan and her head dropped back to give my lips free access to her throat. A second later, my shirt was shredded to rags under her deft fingers.

I was by no means a stranger to intimacy, but the needs starting to bubble just under the surface of my skin were. I'd never felt this overcome with it before. I'd felt lust, yes, but not desire. My body was starting to tremble under the onslaught of her fingers on my skin. Short nails grazed the ridges and valleys of muscles long since frozen in time. I swore I could almost feel them quivering beneath her attentions.

I wanted more. Being touched wasn't enough, I wanted, needed, to touch in return.

"Bella," I sighed again, this time my breath caressed the juncture of throat and shoulder, moving her shirt away from her skin as I kissed my way downwards.

"Yes," she answered my unspoken question.

Within a drum beat, her shirt ended in the same condition as mine – rags littering the forest floor. I pulled away to look my fill, eyes roving over her beautiful body, the full curves that waited for my touch. I don't know why I was surprised to find no bra beneath the shirt, and the lack of it stole my breath.

"So beautiful, my Bella. So beautiful."

My lips continued their path along shoulder and collarbone as my flattened hand moved its way up from hip to belly to ribcage. It didn't stop until the full weight of her breast rested in my palm. She gasped, I moaned. Fingers and thumb searched out the distended nipple pressing into my palm. Slowly, I rolled the bud between them, eliciting more moans from deep in Bella's throat.

I felt her body bow against me, back arching in what I could only interpret as a move to get closer to me. It was my turn to moan when her belly pressed against the raging erection I'd had since the moment she'd ripped the shirt off me.

I didn't know what I expected when she felt my reaction to her, but it certainly wasn't for her to moan again and shift her body against mine – creating the most delicious friction and a surge in my already painful cock.

Not one to take torture without dishing out a bit of my own, I took the only route open to me. I slowly lowered myself until my lips were inches from one darkened nipple. My tongue darted out to flick the sensitive bud, moistening it, then I blew softly against the wet skin, causing the nipple to pucker even further. I counted a beat, one, two, three seconds, then closed the gap and took her breast straight into my mouth.

This time I didn't know which of us moaned; nor did I care.

I continued to torment the sensitive skin of her breasts, my mouth moving from one to the other so that neither felt neglect. Bella arched and retreated against the assault, her hands continuing to roam over my back and shoulders, stomach and hips, fingers digging into and tugging at my hair.

I was so lost in her, tastes and sounds and feelings, that I didn't notice her lowering us to the forest floor. Not until I felt her nimble fingers at the fine trail of hair leading from my navel. My muscles wanted to quiver under her touch, and instinct had me tightening them. Bella took advantage of the gap that created between skin and denim and slipped her clever fingers inside.

She didn't stop until she had my cock wrapped in her firm grip.

"Oh fuck," I hissed when she held me at last. It was all I could do to not buck straight into her hand, took every ounce of my strength to keep from scaring her off with my over exuberance.

"Does that feel good?" she asked. I was almost surprised when I heard a vague teasing in her voice.

I dragged my eyes open and saw the smug smile on her face.

"You know it does," I answered, dipping my head down to kiss her fiercely.

"Edward," she managed when I broke my lips away from hers again. "I want..." Her hand moved slowly along my cock, one agonizingly slow stroke.

"What do you want?" I asked through gritted teeth.

She waited until our eyes met and held. "I want you. All of you." She gave me another stroke as if to emphasize the point.

No emphasis was needed.

I shuddered into her hand, groaned into her mouth, and was lost to her entirely.

My movements weren't practiced or suave. In fact, I was fairly certain I looked more like a horny teenager than I had even when I'd been one nearly a century before. My fingers fumbled and failed with the buttons on her jeans, and on mine, until I finally gave up on a roar and ripped both sets of jeans to ribbons on a string of curses.

I knew in any other situation, Bella would have laughed at my haste. Not today, not now. She was as caught up as I was, our eyes fixed on each others bodies, our hands clenching in haste to touch.

Then finally, thank God, we were both divested of every barrier between us.

"Beautiful."

I lowered myself down, covering her body with mine. My cock slid just between her legs, resting in the warmth at the juncture of hips and thighs. I could feel her body's moisture against my sensitive flesh, feel the pulsing of her body as it waited for mine.

"Bella," I breathed. My hand skimmed down her side, along the curve of her hip. I slipped it between us to the wet folds harboring the nirvana of her body. One long finger slipped inside her, I had to be sure her body was ready. I should have known she would be. I groaned when her wetness coated my fingers. My cock surged again in a silent plea.

Beneath me, Bella whimpered and her hips bucked upwards. The friction against my cock was almost my undoing.

"Please, Edward," Bella keened into my ear.

I'd never been able to deny her before and this moment was no exception. Within a second I had replaced my finger with my cock, slipping slowly inside her, inch by torturous inch.

Oh God.

I don't know if I said it, or thought it, or both. I didn't care. There were words, I was sure, for the completion I felt when finally joined in every way with my Bella. In that moment when our bodies fit together like yin and yang, however, none of them came to mind. It just was. Is. Was. Us.

Perfect.

I stilled my body when I was buried to the hilt within her welcoming heat. I wanted to give her time to accommodate, to stretch itself around me. I should have known Bella wouldn't let that stand. Her legs raised almost at once, wrapping themselves around me and pulling me deeper. Her hips bucked upwards once, twice, as if begging me to move.

Again, I couldn't deny her.

With my elbows braced on the forest floor, I raised up just slightly, stopping when the tips of her breasts were just brushing my chest. I shifted just enough to let the friction of my chest bring her nipples to peak, then started my hips moving. Every thrust increased that friction, inside and outside, until Bella was writhing and whimpering beneath me.

My moans mingled with hers, breaking only when I couldn't help myself from stealing hers with deep kisses and nips to her lower lip and earlobe. Over and over my hips crashed against hers, deeper and harder at every screamed command for more that tumbled from Bella's lips. The pleasure building inside of us both until we were nearly blind from it.

I felt the tightening in my lower back and knew release was only moments away. I slipped my hand between our bodies again, never breaking the rhythm of my hips as they pounded my cock into her. I managed to find the little nub of nerves between thrusts and flicked my fingertip against it.

"OhGOD," Bella screamed at the first touch. I felt the answering spasm of inner muscles against my cock and continued. Over and over my fingers pressed against her clit, each touch in counter point to the thrusts within her until her pleasure centers were overloaded with the relentless assault.

I felt her orgasm a second before she tensed and arched against me, screaming my name until it echoed off the trees above us. My hips continued to pump into her until I was certain she was spent. I was holding on by my fingernails when I felt her body relax beneath me. I went rigid above her and pressed my hips deep, spilling inside her on an orgasm so intense I nearly grayed out from the force of it.

With my body still trembling from the extremity of my release, I collapsed next to Bella and rolled us, not stopping until she was sprawled across my chest, her cheek against my silent heart and her words falling lightly into my ear.

"I love you."

* * *

Nat King Cole said it best:

At...last...


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N#1: Characters still not mine, you know the drill._

With my body still trembling from the power of my release, I collapsed next to Bella and rolled us, not stopping until she was sprawled across my chest, her cheek against my silent heart and her words falling lightly into my ear.

"I love you."

It was one of the few times I wished my heart still beat, wished hers did as well. It would have been great, I thought, to hear them beating together – a tangible sound to match the feeling of being truly melded with her. I supposed it would have to be enough that our chests rose and fell in unison as our bodies fell lightly back to Earth.

"Bella," I said, my voice a whisper against her lips. "I love you, too, my Bella."

I could feel the smile on her lips a second before I captured them in a deep kiss. My hand came up and lost itself in the tangled mass of her hair, holding her to me as if it were likely she'd be attempting an escape.

I was stunned when it felt like she was doing just that, her head pushing against my hand.

"What is it?"

Her eyes darted from the trees then back to my face again. "You don't hear that?" she asked, looking around.

Confused, I listened to the forest around us with both my ears and mind. It didn't take me long once I let myself focus on something other than the beautiful vampire in my arms. "Yes, I hear it now… to the east, by the tree line? It's…ringing."

"What would be ringing all the way out here?"

That's when the tune came to me. "That's Alice's ringtone."

I was utterly unprepared for Bella to scramble up and off of me, her hands grabbing at the bits of clothing surrounding us. I heard her mutter something about getting dressed before anyone saw her starkers. I could have told her it wasn't necessary, Alice wasn't anywhere near here, just her phone, but Bella was in too much a frantic search to hear me. She held each bit or ruined clothing up to her body; she even tried to put one garment on until she realized it was a sleeve…and nothing else. In fact, nothing in the remains of our clothes was bigger than a dust rag or had a hope of covering her.

"Stop smiling," she said, scowling at me. "It's not funny."

"Oh, believe me, I'm not laughing. I'm actually quite enjoying the view."

"It's your fault they're ruined, you know," she answered, a bit petulantly.

Because of the time I'd been raised in, and because she was absolutely right, I searched the ground for my shirt to offer it to her.

I held up a rag.

"I might be wrong, but I'm fairly certain I didn't do this to my own shirt. So perhaps the blame goes both ways?"

Bella looked up and I smiled when the non-blush covered her face, her sharp teeth worrying a glass-smooth lip.

"Oops?"

I laughed and took her back into my arms, capturing the bitten lip with my own teeth, and pulled her to the ground.

We didn't remember the ringing again until much, much later.

By then, dusk had given way to night and a few rare stars were winking to life overhead. Bella was propped on an elbow facing me. The fingers of her free hand were tracing random patterns over my chest while mine did the same on the base of her spine.

"You don't think it was serious, whatever Alice was calling about?"

"Not life threateningly, no," I answered lazily.

"How do you know?"

"You don't know Alice. If there's something she thinks you need to know, she finds a way to get the information across. To the point she'd come out here and wrench us apart if needs be." I chuckled as a memory flashed through my mind. "I remember the night I found you in the forest; she called me on my cell phone as well as the house phone. Repeatedly and continuously until I gave in and picked up."

"Tenacious," Bella agreed.

"I'm still amazed her picture isn't next to that word in the dictionary," I agreed with a nod.

"But…," Bella said, teeth on her bottom lip again. She was really going to have to stop doing that, given the effect it had on me.

I turned to face her, thinking I might be able to distract her again. Then I saw the worry etched over every line of her face and sighed – distraction had worked once, I doubted it would work again.

"All right. If I go find her phone, and find out what she wants, will you relax?" I studied her face, clear to me even in the dark of night.

"Yes," she answered softly.

"I'll be right back then," I promised her and ran towards where we'd heard the ringing sound earlier.

It took no time at all to find the waterproof bag Alice had stored near the base of a gnarled birch tree. Once I remembered where I'd heard the sound, it was nothing at all to focus my attention in that direction. Within a minute the scent of canvas hit my nose and the bag was in hand seconds later. I pulled it open and searched through the contents. There was a note from Alice pinned to my shirt.

 _Edward._

 _Knew these would come in useful after what was the singularly most uncomfortable vision I've ever had. Honestly, Edward, the middle of the forest? How romantic for Bella._

 _You can thank me later._

 _~A_

I laughed full and long after I'd read it. Only Alice.

Knowing Bella was anxious about this, I didn't linger over the bag. I simply tucked it under my arm and ran the half-mile or so back to where Bella waited for me.

"Everything all right?"

"Yes, everything's fine. I found this with the phone," I explained with a grin and dropped the bag at Bella's feet. "She probably just used the phone to let me know where it was, she wasn't trying to call us at all."

I watched with mirth as she pulled out fresh clothes for both of us, right down to underwear and socks. She'd even sent shoes.

Bella looked up at me, confused. "What…how?"

I unpinned the note and handed it to her. "This should help clear things up a bit."

I watched her eyes move over the paper as she read, surprised a bit when she didn't even crack a smile. In fact, her face was even more confused when she looked back up at me.

"What is it?"

"What does she mean by vision?"

I blinked. In an instant I ran over every conversation Bella and I had had since we'd met, trying to remember when I'd told her about Alice. I couldn't find so much as a single thought. In the time we'd known each other, I'd never disclosed Alice's gift, not in so many words. There had been a mention now and then of not seeing a change in a decision, yes, but that was the extent of it.

There was something else missing from my memories.

I'd never told Bella that I could read minds, either. Granted I couldn't read hers, so it wasn't as though I was hiding that I was privy to thoughts she believed private. Still, I hated the idea that I hadn't been completely open with her about everything. Especially now that our relationship had changed so thoroughly.

I sat back down on the forest floor next to Bella. "I think we need to talk," I said softly.

Bella looked up at me and shivered once. "Why do I not like the sound of that at all?"

"Probably because in the history of time, not many happy conversations have started that way?"

"That'd be a good reason," she agreed. "Is that what this is going to be? One of those not-happy conversations?"

I took her hand in mine, brought it to my lips and pressed a soft kiss to her knuckles. "I certainly hope not."

"All right then. How does this potentially bad conversation begin?"

"With another never-happy phrase. There's something I need to tell you."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound any better."

"It rarely is, but I'll begin by saying that I didn't keep any of this from you intentionally. It's just, with everything else we had happening when we were together, it never came up in conversation. As for Alice and Jasper, their gifts have been part of our lives from day one, so they're commonplace, not something I consciously think about explaining."

"This conversation. Is it supposed to be this confusing?"

I couldn't help but laugh. "No, it's not. I'm rambling because I'm afraid you're going to take off running."

The next thing I knew, Bella's lips were fixed to mine in a deep, soul-searching kiss that seemed to stretch into infinity. Her lithe, little body crawled into my lap, her arms around my neck. "Does that seem to you the action of someone about to bolt?"

"Not at all," I managed when I regained the power of speech.

"Then tell me, Edward. Just say it, whatever it is."

"All right. Here goes: I can read minds, Alice can see the future, and Jasper can sense and manipulate emotions."

Bella was quiet for a moment. I held my unnecessary breath as I waited for her reaction. For once, her face betrayed no emotion and I hated anew the fact her mind was a blank space. What I wouldn't give to know what was going on behind her eyes.

"Um. Wow? You can read minds?"

"Yes," I answered, leery.

"That's really cool," she said and her lips quirked into a smile as her eyes closed. "What am I thinking?"

I laughed, wrapping my arms tight around her and pulling her into a tight hug. "That's what I get for saying things flat out like that. I should have said that I can read _most_ minds."

She was quiet for a second. "Most. But not mine?" she guessed, her eyes opening again.

"Not yours." I brought my hand up to cup her face. "I can read every mind I encounter but yours. For some reason, your mind is a blank space I can't penetrate."

This didn't seem to surprise her and I cocked an eyebrow at her. "Bella?"

"Garrett told me there would be others with abilities, things beyond the speed and hearing and strength we had. He told me to watch out for it," she said softly. "He also told me I might have an advantage, though, because he couldn't get any sense of me at all through his gift and wondered if others would have the same problem," she said, a slight frown crinkling her brow. The expression on her face when she finished was easy enough to read.

I reached up to soothe the frown away. "It doesn't mean there's something wrong with you."

Her eyes flew up to mine. "You just said…"

"I said I couldn't read your mind, Bella. But I've become quite adept at reading your face to make up for the lack. It's very expressive." I chuckled. "Do yourself a favor and don't let Jazz or Emmett talk you into playing poker."

Bella smiled, but it was a small one. She wasn't in the mood to be distracted with humor today. "You're one of the ones Garrett warned me about, the reason he told me to scream in my mind as well as with my voice if I got in trouble. He knew I couldn't fight. He said I'd need some way to get away. He wasn't sure if any other vampires could sense minds the way he could, but to do it anyway. Just in case."

"Garrett was right," I told her. "The few times you've used it on me, your scream has gone straight through my mind and paralyzed me for a few seconds."

I laughed, because the look on Bella's face was nothing more than pride. "And you're happy about that?" I said, poking a finger at her arm.

Bella tried for contrite, but didn't quite make it. "Of course I'm not," she said, utterly unconvincingly. The non-blush was back, coupled with the twinkle in her sunset eyes.

I couldn't help it; I poked her side. "Yes, you are. But it's all right. Pride's a good thing. I've got to admit to being a little happy about it myself. I thought we were dealing with a new defensive power we'd never seen before and it worried us. Now, though, we know it's just your cunning."

"Cunning?" she asked with a wider smile touching her lips.

"What else would you call it?"

"Luck," she laughed.

I laughed with her. "Whatever it is, I owe Garrett a debt of gratitude for it. For giving you that ability to protect yourself. For keeping you safe."

My laughter grew at the look of utter indignation on Bella's face. "I'd like to think I did a fair job of that all on my own, thank you very much."

I pressed a kiss on the frown line between her eyebrows. "Yes, you did. A phenomenal one, Bella."

She looked satisfied with that. With something like a reluctant sigh, she got up off of my lap and dug into the bag to hand me the clothes Alice had left for us. "Alice and Jasper, though. She can really see—"

Bella gasped, stopping stock still with a pair of jeans in her hand.

"What is it?" I asked, looking around out of habit.

"Alice...sent this? She...she saw...us?"

"Apparently so, yes," I agreed. To me it was nothing new. And frankly, about time for her to endure a bit of the torture I'd been plagued with over the decades. It was difficult enough to live with a houseful of soulmates all partnered up – it was worse still to listen to their thoughts during sex. When all three couples were expressing that love at the same time? There wasn't enough noise in the world to drown it out.

Bella started pulling on clothes with absent, jerky motions. Her eyes fixed on the forest floor beneath our still-bare feet.

"Bella? What's wrong?"

Her head shook. "How can I face her now?"

I finished fastening my jeans and walked over to where she stood. "You're embarrassed. There's no need to be," I said, my hand on her chin, tipping it up.

"Course there is, if she saw us…?" she responded, her slight shoulders raising and lowering.

"We've all had moments over the years; we actually have them repeatedly given that we live in such close quarters. I suppose we've all just grown accustomed to it with that constant exposure that it's just not worth getting worked up about it anymore. We want to live together as a family, tripping over each others' passion is just one of the drawbacks."

"But what she said? It sounded like she'd be traumatized for life."

My head dropped back as laughter ripped up from my chest. "Have you somehow missed Alice's penchant for over-dramatizing things?"

I saw the beginnings of a smile pull at the corners of her mouth. "I didn't miss it, no, but I think I forgot about it for a second there."

"Then relax, it's all fine. She likes you."

Bella's head cocked to the side. "How can you tell that?"

I dipped my head in and kissed her cheek. "Because if she didn't, she'd have left only clothes for me, or not left clothes at all. She's also not very subtle, our Alice."

This time, Bella laughed with me.

It took us another minute to finish dressing and start the journey back to the house. Neither of us saw the need to hurry, so we walked instead, hands twined together and swinging lazily between us. After the deep abyss of misery I'd spent the last week mired it, this quiet walk with Bella by my side felt nothing short of miraculous.

"So, Jasper," she said after a quarter mile of silence.

"Yes?"

"You said he can sense and manipulate emotions. What exactly does that mean? I mean, can he make two strangers fall in love, or take two lovers and make them hate each other?"

I considered that for a moment. "I suppose he could, but he'd have to stay with them and keep the manipulation up indefinitely. Possible, yes, but not probable or practical."

"So he uses it to what, then?"

"Say we meet up with a pair of not-so-friendly nomads passing through, looking to make trouble..." I started, trailing off to see if she'd follow the thought to its conclusion.

Bella smiled and I could almost watch her mind work it through. "He influences them to not be so territorial or angry, makes them feel all docile so they go away?"

I gave her hand a squeeze. "Just so. It also helps a great deal when we spend the majority of our time in high schools around humans. If I hear someone trying to figure us out, Jazz can help them lose that curiosity."

"Handy," Bella agreed. "And Alice? She can see everything that happens before it does?"

"Not exactly. Her visions are dependent on the path a person's on at the time. If they make a decision that changes their course, the vision will change, or go away entirely."

"Their path?" Bella asked, and I saw her eyes dart to the forest floor beneath our feet.

"Not always the literal one, but yes."

I saw her half-turn towards me, but then she turned back without saying anything.

"You had a question?" I asked, giving her hip a bump.

"No, I just. Well."

"What, Bella?"

"Did she see me coming?"

I was about to answer in the negative, when my mind flashed back to that night, the night of the storm that had so engrossed me it had sent Tanya packing for Alaska a full day early. It had been the night Alice had called both my cell and the house phone trying to reach me, to berate me for not cutting Tanya loose while I'd had the chance. It was a clear memory as I'd just been thinking about it a few hours earlier.

It was the night I'd seen a bare footprint in the mud along the edge of our back yard and Alice had gasped while on the phone with me. A very familiar gasp; the sound Alice only made when a vision surprised her.

 _"What did you see?"_

 _"Nothing, Edward. It was nothing."_

 _"Now why don't I believe you?"_

 _"Because you're a horribly mistrusting brother and I'm ashamed to call you family?"_

 _"Bullshit."_

I remember we'd spoken for a few minutes beyond that before I'd decided to go out and track the footprint. And I remembered Alice not being even remotely put out that I'd rushed to get off the phone after moving heaven and earth to see that I answered her call.

"Yes," I said to Bella and brought her hand up to my lips, "I think she did see you coming."

"You think? Don't you know?"

"She was in London when she called me that night; we were on the phone together when she had her vision. My ability to read minds doesn't stretch over distance. I have to be close to someone to hear them.

"And she hasn't said anything to you since?"

I smiled, slowing us a bit when I realized we were very close to the house. I wasn't quite ready to be home, to share Bella with the others just yet. "Alice doesn't share every vision she has with us, just the ones that pose a potential danger to us, either individually or as a family. And she doesn't see every little aspect of our lives mapped out for us, either. Usually it's just major events or decisions with far-reaching consequences."

"And which was I?"

I stopped walking and pulled her into my arms, dipping her low to press a kiss to her lips. Bella giggled.

"You, my darling Bella, were both. Or, at least I hope there are far-reaching consequences involved?" I turned the statement into a question at the end, my eyes searching hers.

"How far-reaching?" Bella asked when we straightened up.

"That depends on you, my little nomad. Are you ready to stop wandering?"

Bella blinked her orange eyes up at me, a smile turning up the corners of her mouth. But before she could open her mouth to answer, Emmett came breaking though the brush surrounding us.

I barely managed to contain my groan.

"Emmett. Really, I—"

"Dude," he said and cut me off, "you seriously need to start carrying your phone. Or at least turn it on every now and then, maybe check the display? We've been calling you for the past half hour."

Instantly, I was on alert. My back went ramrod straight, my arm tightened protectively around Bella, and my mind focused in on Emmett's.

And what I heard there had my jaw dropping.

"What the hell?"

"I know, dude," Emmett nodded, used to the shorthand of having to explain nothing.

"What?" Bella asked from beside me, her eyes looking from Emmett to me and back again. "You mind sharing with the non-mind reader here?" She sounded a little perturbed, the way Alice did when I answered questions that were only thought at me, not spoken. Bella was fitting right in already.

"It's the girl," I said, "from the clearing."

Bella stiffened and I held her tighter to me. "What about her?"

"There was some sort of problem getting her back to the house to have Carlisle check her over. Apparently, she went a little crazy and kept trying to get away from Emmett and Jasper."

"A little crazy? She was batshit, man. It was taking everything Jazz had just to keep her from hyperventilating."

"Give her a break, Emmett, she _was_ being lead away from the mauling death of her father by two vampires. That's liable to give any human a few bad moments," I added sarcastically.

"I'm telling you, Edward, it wasn't that at all. She was seriously freaking out about us, kept looking over her shoulder and muttering something about 'her' which we both took to mean she was looking for you, Bella."

"Me?"

"Yeah. Jazz said her fear spiked every time she said 'her' so we think she was expecting you to come breaking through the trees at any moment."

"What else?" I prodded. I knew there had to be much more than this for Emmett to have run into the forest to find me.

"Well, you know how close we were to the boundary line when we found...well, where their tent had been."

Boundary line. The wolves. Of course. Couldn't go completely clusterfuck without them thrown into the mix, now, could we?

"Yes," I said, drawing the word out in to several syllables, praying that I was wrong.

"Well, the girl was a fuckload of panic, right? So we're walking past the border and the tall one, Embry, shows up. God sometimes he's such a little prick. He was all posturing and whatever, thinking he was all that even though he was in human form and not phased. God, I wanted to..."

"Emmett..."

"Right, sorry. Anyway, so Embry shows up and goes all big man protector. I guess he'd been listening to us for a while, we'd been right near the border and you know how their ears are, and he'd phased human to confront us since you weren't there to pick the thoughts from his mind. Then Quil showed up in wolf form I guess to make the point about Embry not being outnumbered, like that would have stopped..."

"Emmett!"

"All right, all right. Long story short, he told the girl to go with them, that she'd be safe on the reservation. And I guess she believed him more than us because she ran right for him. God, it's like we were some sort of monsters or something."

"Go figure," I said softly, but Emmett either didn't hear me or missed the sarcasm.

"Anyway, the girl went with the wolves and Jasper and I came back here alone."

Silence stretched between the three of us, Bella and I looking at Emmett expectantly.

"What?" he asked.

"What do you mean, what? Why did you looking for me as if Hell itself was descending on our house? None of that sounds particularly threatening to the family, Emmett. Worrying, yes, because we need to see what the girl really heard or knows about what we are, but that's hardly crash through the trees urgent."

"Oh, that. Well, Alice sent me to come get you because her entire evening went completely blank."

"Blank?" Bella said at last, looking from Emmett to me again.

"Alice can't see Jake or his littermates" I explained. "Doesn't matter if they're in wolf form or human. When we interact, she can't see anyone's path. Like a black shroud is dropped over everything."

"And that's bad," Bella guessed.

"Not usually," I said and gave her a brief rundown of the treaty. "The wolves don't want to cause trouble any more than we do, not really. They're as bound by the truce as we are and no one really wants the losses we'd both feel if we did mix it up."

"But?"

"But we're not willing to take the chance and if a blank evening means a confrontation with the wolves is imminent, we'd rather all be together than spread out."

"Should I go...somewhere? I mean, I'm assuming Jake will be there. Maybe it'll make things easier if I'm not there."

My head started shaking the negative before she could get the whole sentence out. "Jake's going to have to start dealing with you sooner or later, right?" I paused, suddenly unsure.

I turned to look at Bella's pale, perfect face. I realized that I'd made a single, but very important mistake. Ever since we'd come out of our erotic haze and back to reality in the meadow, my path had been clearer than it had ever been. No, I didn't know exactly where I was going, but I knew that no matter where it was, that Bella would be by my side.

As we stood, starting at each other in the gloom of the forest, I realized I'd forgotten to ask Bella if that was a part of her plans as well.

"That is, if you're meaning to stay with us," I sputtered. I thought I heard Emmett mutter something like "smooth" and I made a mental note to hit him for it later.

My heart lodged somewhere near my throat as I waited for her to answer.

"Of course I want to stay with you," Bella said on a whisper as her toes raised to bring her lips closer to mine.

"Well, duh," Emmett said, utterly ruining the moment.

"What did you say?"

"I said duh. Did you really think she wasn't going to? Oh yeah," Emmett said without pause, smacking his own forehead.

"Oh yeah…what?"

"Nothing, I forgot you haven't seen your bedroom yet."

I cocked one eyebrow at my brother. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Means Alice has been working on your room since we went out for our walk earlier, apparently. She knew the little nomad here would be coming back with you."

I felt more than heard Bella gasp next to me, her body going a little rigid.

"She knew...before we'd even seen each other again?"

"Apparently so," I said on a smile, wrapping my hands around her in a loose hug. "Couple things about life with the Cullens, Bella. There's never a dull moment, and there are very few surprises. Think you can put up with that?"

There was no hesitation this time. Just a warm, wide smile, "I think I can put up with it just fine."

I was just leaning in to kiss her, figuring there was no better way to seal this moment, when I heard her voice. We must have finally gotten close enough to the house for me to hear Alice's mind.

 _Knock it off, Edward. That can wait, this can't. They're almost here._


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N – Does anyone really think I own 'em? I don't. All I claim is what they're doing in this story. That's mine…allllllmine…_

_Also - to clarify - the use of the word "girl" to describe the survivor from the bear attack in the forest was a generic female word; it does not mean the girl was a child._

* * *

I would have thought that with all of Alice's urgency that the wolves were bearing down on the house, snarling and ready for battle. When we got to the back deck, however, it was to find only Esme waiting with arms outstretched.

"Bella, sweetheart, we're so happy to have you with us again." My mother reached the deck at the same time we crossed from the trees to the back lawn. Within a second, her arms were around Bella, her lips pressed to her temple.

"Thanks, Esme, I'm glad to be here. I missed you, too, all of you," Bella responded. She returned the hug easily, no trace of the touch-sensitive Bella I'd first brought into the house.

"I just wish we didn't have all this mess with the wolves to contend with at the moment. It doesn't feel right not having some sort of occasion to commemorate your homecoming.

Bella's eyes met mine and she grinned widely, and a bit wickedly. As ever, I didn't need my gift to see the thought behind the look.

We already had commemorated the moment, several times.

If the look she was giving me now was any indication, we'd be celebrating it again later just as soon as the wolves were gone. I smiled wider. I could get used to this stupid-in-love thing pretty easily.

A thump on the back of my head stopped my lascivious thoughts from getting too carried away. I turned to find the culprit, Jasper, arms crossed and face serious. "Focus, Edward. The last thing we need right now is you distracted by your baser needs."

"Always the gentleman, aren't you, Jazz?" Alice said as she breezed down the stairs, kissing him on the cheek as she passed. "What he means is stop thinking about sexing Bella up for a minute and start focusing on the incoming wolves, please."

"Thanks for the subtle translation," I laughed back, tongue in cheek, "I'd never have figured it out otherwise."

I could see the non-blush forming on Bella's cheeks and so, apparently, could my other brother. Emmett's laughter preceded him into the room and he ruffled her hair on his way to the front porch.

"Welcome to the family, Bella," he said before the door closed behind him.

I slipped my hand into hers and threaded our fingers. "Think you can put up with us?" I asked and brought her hand up to my face to kiss just above her knuckles. I wasn't _too_ worried about the answer, just worried enough to actually ask the question to be sure.

"I think I'll be able to handle it, yeah," she replied easily, her eyes twinkling back her happiness.

"Good. I'd hate to have to resort to locking you in my tower until your resistance was gone," I joked back.

"You don't have a tower."

"I'd build one."

I was leaning in to kiss her smiling lips when I heard it…Jake's mind. His thoughts were drifting in and out of my head as he got closer to the house. Nothing concrete, just random impressions on the weather, the trees, the grass…things he usually thought about when he was trying to keep me out.

"Edward," Jasper said.

"I hear it," I said back.

"Hear what?" Bella asked me.

"Jacob, he's just coming down the drive now but he's…" I broke off, I didn't trust the thought.

I listened harder, and then heard Emmett on the porch expressing the same confusion.

"He's alone," Emmett said under his breath, echoing my thoughts. He was gone a split second later to guard our flank with Rose.

As I told Bella, none of us expected the wolves to cause trouble; but we certainly weren't going to be caught napping if they changed their minds. And there was no way Emmett was going to leave his wife with even the remote possibility she'd be facing two wolves on her own.

"Okay. So. He's alone," Bella repeated softly, her small hand tugging on mine. "I'm guessing by the fact everyone's reaction that this is bad thing?"

I tried to relax my posture. The action was met with only a fleeting success. "The wolves asked to meet us," I said, hearing Carlisle's thoughts on the phone call Jake had placed earlier, "but only one shows up? Let's just say we're more comfortable when we know where all three of them are."

We all went quiet the closer Jake got to the front steps. By the time he reached the door, we weren't even breathing. Because any pretense that we didn't know he was approaching, or already here, would be just that – a very insulting pretense at that – Carlisle chose to open the front door just as Jake reached the bottom step of the porch.

I tried to maneuver Bella behind me, but she was, of course, having none of it. She moved right back to my side and shot me a look that said, in no uncertain terms, that she'd be staying right where she was, thank you very much.

I'd have grinned over her boldness if the situation wasn't so tense.

"Jake," Carlisle said softly.

"Carlisle," the younger man returned the greeting.

The silence grew as both men waited for the other to speak.

I was keeping my mind wide open, listening to everything around me when I normally spent my time doing just the opposite. Nothing about this was normal, though. I checked with Jasper's thoughts as he focused on Jake's emotional state, I checked with Rose and Emmett at the back of the house, seeing the rear edge of our property through their thoughts and shared their conclusion. There was no one there.

Jake was still using random thoughts to keep me from hearing what was going through his mind. I wondered how long he'd be able to keep it up, especially when he started speaking. Alice had no problems when she did it, but with an enhanced vampire's mind, thinking and speaking two very different things wasn't much of a challenge.

To a human, it would be close to impossible.

If it was this vital that he keep, whatever it was, a secret, I'd not actively probe. I could do that much. If I got any hits he was scheming around, all bets were off, but for now, I'd keep my mind on making sure an attack didn't take any of us by surprise.

"What can we do for you, Jacob?" Carlisle asked when the silence had gone on a full minute. "You intimated to me that this was a matter of supreme importance."

"Yeah, it's important, all right."

We were all quiet, waiting, expectant, but Jake still didn't speak

"Whenever you're ready," I added sarcastically.

"Right. It's about the girl."

It hit me the second he said "girl," but not from Jake. What I heard came from Jasper.

"What the hell?" We said it at the same time, our eyes both on Jake.

His eyes landed on me; his anger so palpable he was practically shooting lasers from them. "I knew you wouldn't be able to resist skipping through my head."

Through Jasper's thoughts, I felt the…whatever it was he'd thought when he'd brought up the girl turn to anger in a second. I held up both of my hands. "Don't even go there. I knew you were trying to hide something from me, so I respected that and kept my mind away from yours. I was reacting to what Jasper felt."

"What _was_ that?" Jasper spoke up from where he stood, a bit behind and to my left. "I've never felt anything like it."

Jake ignored him His eyes were fixed on Carlisle. "I don't suppose I could ask you to just stay away from the res, away from the girl, forget all about her and leave it at that?"

"Yes, of course you could. But speaking as a doctor, and a respected member of the community, I wouldn't be doing my job if I let any injuries go untreated or her general welfare left unattended."

 _Edward. Did you or Jasper see anything to indicate that the girl is in danger or hurt in any way?_

Carlisle had long-since learned to ask only one question at a time, and to keep those questions to yes or no answers. I knew he was trying to determine how hard to push Jake on this – especially if the girl was injured in some way.

Because that wasn't even close to what had caused our reaction, I caught his eye and gave an almost imperceptible shake of my head – one that would be unnoticeable by human eyes. No, we certainly didn't register anything like hurt where the girl was involved.

It was as far from danger as it got.

I felt Bella's hand tighten in mine. Then I felt her step forward.

Everything in me poised to move forward myself, to stop her, to keep her far away from the wolf that could. If he lost control and phased? He could rip her to pieces…

All right, that wasn't likely. He was outnumbered six to one. Rationally I knew, and he knew, that by the time his paws hit the floor we'd have her far away from him…and have him investigating new avenues of pain. Problem was, I wasn't feeling terribly rational at the moment.

Then Bella turned back and looked into my eyes. "Trust me," she whispered, too low for anyone else to hear.

Before I could answer, she'd turned back to Jake and left me no other option.

I focused my attention on Jasper's thoughts as Bella moved closer to her former best friend.

I expected anger when he saw Bella move closer; anger, loathing, revulsion, any and all negative and hateful emotions. All Jake felt when Bella moved in front of him was…gratitude?

I met Jasper's eyes and he mine. We shrugged our shoulders in unison. This confrontation was getting curiouser and curiouser.

"Jake?"

"Hiya, Bells," he said softly and I blinked. Bells? Childhood nickname? And if so, should I feel relief that he could use it…or on guard for some sort of trickery?

I looked over at Jasper – my brother was as tense as we all were, but it was a more general tension, not one focused on any threat from Jake. As for Jake's thoughts? They were as calm as they ever got, his mind searching for, and finding, the human Bella still lingering inside the vampire in front of him.

I knew I was seeing the Jacob Black that had once been, and still would be, if our presence had not brought about his body's change. This was the Jacob that was, by all accounts, destined for the woman at my side had their paths kept them both human.

"You said we used to talk a lot when…before. I thought maybe it might be easier for you to talk to me. I mean, I know I'm not the same..."

Jake's head cocked to the side, suddenly diverted now that she was close enough for him to truly see her face. "No, you're not the same."

I saw Bella's shoulders slump and was about to step forward when Jake looked over her shoulder at me. "Her eyes are different."

"Bella's had a change in her diet," I said with a smile. I was still very proud of the success she'd accomplished on her own. "It will take a few months before her eyes complete the change from red to yellow, but she's well on her way."

Jake seemed to take the right meaning from my statement; he nodded at any rate, and neither his features nor his thoughts even touched on anything negative.

I relaxed my posture, slightly, and did nothing to interfere while they talked.

"I think it'll be easier for them to accept your request if they have all the facts. What happened when she left with Embry and Quil?"

"All right. The girl, young woman, really. Vanessa," Jake started.

Jasper and I looked up at each other again. There it was – that same sense of…something neither of us could put a name to. It was more sight than feeling, really, because Jake's whole mind filled with a bright, blinding white light.

"I…God. I never…The stories never prepared me for what…for what it felt li— I never imagined anything…," Jake broke off, floundering. "Oh fuck it," he said at last and looked away from Bella to focus on me. "Just read it, will you? I don't have the right words for this without fucking it up."

I cocked an eyebrow at Jake. I'd never known the kid to flounder like this. Young though we knew he was, he was always so self-assured when he spoke. Didn't matter if he was posturing or just talking, he never tripped up on words.

"You're sure?" I wanted to be absolutely clear that I wasn't doing this against his well.

"I'm sure," Jake responded, firm and unwavering. I knew how much he hated my gift…and what it meant that he was giving me free reign in his thoughts.

I met his eyes straight on and, at his insistence, searched his mind. After the measures he'd taken to initially keep me out, I wondered what could possibly be important enough to have him not only allow the intrusion, but welcome it.

I saw him leaving what looked like a garage and walking towards Embry and Quil. Quil was in wolf form, Embry was human and cradling the young woman at his side.

 _A chick?_ Jake's thoughts were confused and pissed at the same time _– what the fuck, Embry? What was he thinking bringing some girl here? Not that she wasn't pretty, she was. Gorgeous, actually. Long legs, long body, reddish brown hair caught up in a braid down her back. Still, pretty or no, it wasn't like he needed to go trolling for dates or…_

 _She looked up at Jake just as he was about to yell at Embry and Jake's world swam right out of focus._

I knew then why he couldn't explain it to us, I could barely understand it myself. It felt like everything that made up the man before me was cut free in that second of eye contact. Cut free then forged anew, the end product handed to the young woman looking back at him with something like awe. The feelings were so intense, I had to close my mind to it. It felt too much like voyeurism for comfort.

One word washed over the memory: imprint. I didn't understand it at first, but after experiencing what Jake had, I thought I had a pretty good idea. Jake must have seen my confusion because he brought another memory to the front of his mind, one of his father's voice telling them the ancient stories of their tribes and of finding their true mates.

"Edward?" It was Bella's voice that pulled me from Jake's memories. Her voice, her hand in mine. I looked into her sunset eyes and smiled. I gave her slight fingers a squeeze before raising my eyes back to Jake's.

Understanding passed between us in that once glance. I was free to share what I'd heard.

"You know how they say that wolves mate for life?"

All around me, heads nodded and I saw comprehension start to dawn in their eyes. Jasper, who'd felt the emotion of Jake's thoughts, already understood. Probably better than I did. "Apparently, the pack members find these mates at first glance after they've phase into wolf form. And this girl," I paused.

"Vanessa," Jake supplied. You'd have to have been deaf to not hear the reverence in his voice.

"Vanessa is Jake's mate," I finished unnecessarily.

Again, my eyes met Jake's and in that second a lifetime's understanding flowed between us. He thanked me for not embellishing the story or taking his achingly private moment and making a triviality of it; and with only a shift of my eyes from him to Bella then back again I told him that it was because I'd had my own such transformation over Bella.

We, both of us, had been changed irrevocably by the women our lives were destined to revolve around for whatever eternity surrounded us. It made us, for the moment at least, brothers. Neither of us expected it to last, but for now? It was enough.

My parents being who they were, they smiled and offered their congratulations to Jake and, to his credit, he was at least trying to be gracious. Bella offered the same to him. I could see by the way her body leaned towards him that she wanted to shake his hand, hug him, offer him something other than words. Jake's rigid stance told us both that no matter the understanding between us, he wasn't ready for that yet.

"What I don't understand," Jasper asked from his position near the front window. "Is why Jake finding himself a girlfriend is cause for all the dramatics? I mean, I'm happy for you," Jasper added when Alice poked his stomach, "but this couldn't have been said in a phone call."

"It could have been," Jake said and the tension was back in his voice again, "but Ness wants to talk to Bella."

I was confused until Jake sent another thought directly to me. I nodded my understanding and passed the information on to the rest. "It's part of the imprinting he went through with Vanessa, the compulsion to give her what she needs is nearly impossible for him to refuse."

"I thought you said it was love at first sight? Or something like that?" Bella asked, looking between Jake and me.

"It's more complex than that," Jake answered, "but the why isn't important." His hand raised and ran through his short hair. "I don't want to be here any longer than you want me to be, but it's important to her and I said I'd try. So this is me. Trying."

I raised an eyebrow at him, hearing the unspoken. "Try? You don't want it to succeed?"

"I don't want her served up as dinner, no."

Bella cringed. My arm went around her at once, giving her a comforting squeeze as I turned my head and leaned over to kiss her temple. "You wouldn't, Bella."

I could tell by the way she didn't relax at my words that she didn't believe it any more than Jake did, but I knew she could do it. And I'd do whatever I could to prove it to her, to both of them, that she could do this.

* * *

We all wondered how long it would take for the girl's, Vanessa's, need to see Bella to override Jake's need to protect her and keep her from what he perceived as something more dangerous than rollerblading down I-5. If any of us thought it would be as easy as her walking down the front drive, we were mistaken.

While Jake had been with us, the two other members of his pack had been charged with Vanessa's security and instructed to not leave her alone for any reason. We had no way of knowing if either Quil or Embry found anything odd in that request, especially as we'd not set one foot on Quileute land in decades. With what I knew about the pack's telepathy, I doubted they would have fought him much on the request.

There were several phone calls involved in setting up the meeting as well. We went back and forth on who would be there, where we'd meet, and when. In the end, it was decided we'd meet at our house. The wolves had been adamant about us not setting foot on the reservation, and there was no way we could walk Bella into a Forks diner given that she still looked somewhat like her human self and was still considered missing.

To appease Jake, my family had agreed to stay upstairs for the duration of the meeting. That satisfied Emmett who wasn't about to leave us alone. Jake allowed that much, as long as both of his pack mates were in the room with us as well.

All that brought us to where we now sat. Bella and I were on the sofa, my parents and brothers and sisters were upstairs, and Embry and Quil were standing at both entrances to the living room; Embry in wolf form. I'd asked why and all I got in response was that he was nervous enough and handled stress better this way.

I shook my head at the wolves' combined thoughts of Emmett and Jasper flying in with fangs and capes, poised for attack.

Bella leaned over to me. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I answered softly, "our two protectors see themselves as beefier versions of Buffy over there, staking us and our fanged, caped selves."

Bella smiled, but my teasing fell short of my intention. She was still rigid at my side.

"Relax, love. You're going to do fine. You've already faced her, right? Even when surrounded by blood and being almost insane with thirst, remember? You didn't attack her then and you won't now."

"You'll help me?"

I knew what she meant; she was asking if I'd stop her before she could no matter what it took. "I'll help you," I agreed then leaned in towards her ear. My voice was so low, no one but Bella had a chance of hearing. "And Emmett will too. He's right above you, Bella. If he needs to, he'll drop through the ceiling to help."

"He can do that?" She whispered back to me.

"Esme'd rip him to verbal pieces afterwards, but yes. If I give the word, he'll do it."

She smiled up at me. "You've already discussed it?"

"I knew you'd only relax if we had all the bases covered, so now you can. But don't think for a moment that I think you're not going to be able to handle this. All the plans with Emmett were for your peace of mind, not mine. I know you're going to do fine."

Any further discussion ended when we heard Jake's motorcycle pull up to the front of the house and two sets of footsteps on the front steps.

Bella stiffened beside me, going to near statue when they crossed the threshold. I didn't stiffen when the purely human scent of Vanessa's blood reached my nose. It had none of the animal taint, coupled with the strong wet-dog smell, that we all (even Bella) found so unappealing about Jake and his pack mates.

I didn't react, but Bella did. My hand tightened on hers, lacing our fingers together.

I watched as the pair of them walked into the room and took their seats opposite us on the sofa. It was one of the things we'd discussed, and agreed upon though it went against every bit of my upbringing to not stand when a woman entered the room. But propriety had to be set aside this once to keep Bella seated, and controlled.

Jake's overblown sense of drama never ceased to amaze me.

"Bella?" I whispered over to her.

"I'm all right," she whispered back, her eyes were riveted on the young woman plastered to Jake's side in almost mirror fashion to the way Bella was fused to mine.

She was young. About our age, I thought. I remembered that much from the forest. My attention had been so fixated on Bella at the time I hadn't had noticed much else. She had long, reddish brown hair that was pulled into a braid and was fairly sure would hang down past her hips if left free. Her eyes, which were focused on Bella like trapped animal's, were deep, almost dark chocolate brown.

It was the fear in the girl's eyes, the fear and the matching rapid-fire heartbeat, that got my curiosity up. If she was this terrified, what was she doing here? Wouldn't a letter have sufficed?

I cut my eyes to Jake's while the women at our sides kept their attentions hyper-focused on each other. When he finally looked up from staring at Vanessa, I raised an eye brow and let my eyes go from Bella to Vanessa. I added in a mouthed "why?" as well.

 _She insisted. I tried to have her call or something, she refused. Said she needed to see her face to face._

And as I'd learned the last time he was here, if it was something his mate wanted or needed, Jake's only instinct was to do everything possible to get it for her. I couldn't exactly scoff because I knew I was no different with Bella. It was disconcerting to say the least, being this in tune with Jake.

"Your eyes are different than they were when…in the forest."

The soft voice, breaking so many minutes of tense silence, took us all a little by surprise.

"Yes," Bella answered in the same soft tone. "I've changed my diet to be like the Cullens', so soon my eyes will be more gold than red, just like theirs." Bella's head cocked to the side. "You were staring at my eyes that day, too."

"I was. They were like his, like Jimmy's."

Vanessa, the only human in the room, was probably the only one that didn't hear the collective gasps around the house from both wolves and vampires. I wanted to jump in, go straight to interrogation mode; I could see Jake did, too.

"Who is Jimmy?" Bella asked for all of us.

"He's the boy that killed my best friend, Kathy, last year."

Another collective silence. Well, no one was speaking. I heard the mental ruminations going on around me; and I was amazed at how they all took pretty much the same tack. I could hear Carlisle tensing – he'd wondered if Vanessa had realized just what we were, and what the repercussions would be if she'd guessed correctly. Esme was itching to comfort the girl over her loss. My brothers and sisters were casting their minds around to see if they'd ever run into a nomad named Jimmy.

The wolves were too focused on watching Bella's every twitch to think much beyond their roles as protectors of the Alpha's mate.

"Jimmy was. He was, is, he's like you," Vanessa continued in a still very shaky voice. "His eyes, his pale skin. He wore sunglasses most of the time, trying to be chill, you know, but I saw his real eyes once. I suspected what he was at the time, but Kat told me I was just transferring, you know. I've been a big fantasy reader my whole life and…she said I was trying to make it all real." Her head shook and she pressed harder into Jake's side. "If I'd wanted that, I wouldn't have made them as creepy as he was, that's for sure. The vampires in the books I read are all angsty and heroic. Romantic, you know? Jimmy was just scary."

"And you know for sure that he was a vampire?" I clarified, I wasn't about to patronize the girl by making her think she was foolish for a correct supposition. She'd been through enough. Plus, she'd been escorted here by a man who transformed at will into horse-sized wolf. To maintain that the supernatural was a figment of her imagination would have been insulting.

Vanessa shuddered again and I saw her press closer to Jake's side. "I didn't then. I mean. Not for sure. But when she was found, beaten and broken and without a drop of blood? I was pretty sure." She had to stop, take in a breath, before she could continue. "Then I heard the others, the big one and the blond guy, talking when they were walking me out of the forest."

 _I thought she was in too much shock to understand anything_. Emmett's thought hit me from upstairs and I snorted softly. Typical Emmett.

Carlisle's thoughts were in line with mine – yes, she knew what we were, but didn't seem likely to go blathering out our existence to the world the second she left the house. Not without calling undue attention on the wolves and based on how close she was to Jake, I doubted even finding there are real vampires would be enough to have her betray any of us.

"That's why we're here, Dad and I. I couldn't move past Kat's death, that I didn't do more to keep her away from him. He…he wanted to get me a way for a while, out of town, away from the memories. But it wasn't working; even here, all I could think about was that I didn't do anything to help her."

"Oh, Ness," Bella said softly. "All you could have done was fall victim to him as well."

A wave of grief hit the girl then, caused by memories of her friend, her father, or Bella's gentle, mothering tone, or some combination of the three. Her eyes filled and spilled over as her breathing grew ragged.

 _Tissues, Edward, on the coffee table._

I looked at the box. Where the hell had those come from?

 _I saw Esme wanting them, a few weeks ago. I just didn't know why,_ Alice supplied.

I nudged Bella and then looked at the box. She sent me the same quizzical look. I was fairly sure it was identical to the one I'd been wearing just moments before. I mouthed Alice's name and Bella nodded. Even for the newest member of the family, she was picking up on our shorthand fairly quickly.

Bella held the box out to Jacob, who took two and pressed the tissues into Vanessa's hand.

While this was going on, I saw Jake look over at Bella, then over at me. I cocked an eyebrow at him asking silently what he was trying to do.

 _There was a guy lurking around here a few years ago. Charlie saw him, so did a few teachers at the high school. The description fits. Charlie told my dad he'd even approached a few of the local girls. There'd be nothing for days then he'd turn back up again. Sometimes alone, sometimes with a woman. They suddenly, the sightings stopped altogether and never started up again. Right around the time Bella disappeared._

My eyes widened. I looked from Jake to Quil to Embry then back again then leveled a questioning look straight at him as if to say – what, was he too much for you?

Jake gave his head a quick side-to-side jerk, trying to keep it from the girls that we were talking. _I hadn't phased yet, none of us had. I was the first. I'm actually pretty sure now that he triggered it. By the time I was able to phase back, Bella was gone._

I nodded my understanding, knowing from his memories the pain and confusion that change wracked on his body, mind, and life. I couldn't fault him for circumstances he'd had absolutely no control over.

Not now there was this whole different angle to consider.

Could this Jimmy have possibly been Bella's sire? And if so, how had she avoided Kathy's fate?

"I took a picture of him," Ness said on a sniffle, her voice breaking the tense silence.

"How did you manage that?" I asked as the same question was repeated in the minds of my family above me.

"Th-the same way the paparazzi do with the stars. I work... I worked on the yearbook staff at my old school and they had cameras for the football games, track meets and such. The ones with the big lenses? I borrowed one and went up onto the roof one day Kathy told me she was going to be meeting Jimmy after school. I followed her with the lens and snapped a picture of him when he just…well, it was like he appeared out of nowhere. I clicked the shutter more by reflex than intent. It was blind luck I even got it."

Ness dug into her pocket and pulled out a picture. She didn't even look at the image before she handed it over to me. I glanced at it only long enough to register that it was no one I knew and set it on the table to show the rest of my family later.

"It's no one I kn—"

"Is she all right?" Ness interrupted me.

Confused, I turned to the only other "she" in the room.

Bella's eyes were fixed on the photo on the table, and her body had gone stone still beside me.

"Bella?" I gave her a squeeze, a nudge. Nothing. I tried to turn her head with the same result. "Bella?"

 _Fucking wolves_. Alice's voice in my head, angry that she couldn't see this coming.

 _Edward? What is it?_ Carlisle, very worried, his thoughts echoed in Esme's mind.

"She's gone to stone, Carlisle."

* * *


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N: The only thing I own is the storyline – the characters are all SMeyer's_

"She's gone to stone, Carlisle."

Everyone's attention shifted to Bella the second the words were out of my mouth. All of our thoughts centered on a single train of questioning - why had it happened? What had caused it? My family wouldn't have been asking the questions if they could see her, however. To those of us in the room, the cause of her stillness was crystal clear: the man in the picture. She held it in stiff fingers clutched as if was the only thing tethering her to the earth.

Any suppositions I'd had about this man being Bella's sire were wiped away in that one tense gasp. To stop my siblings from making a monumental mistake, like barreling down here and setting off the wolves, I whispered softly to them what had triggered her reaction. I felt a lessening to their panicked thoughts. It wasn't much, but enough to keep them upstairs.

For now.

Knowing the cause and finding a cure were, however, diametric opposites. While my mind searched for solutions, I continued to call to Bella, to touch her face and hands, even a kiss to her lips. Both actions came up short. My touches had had no Prince Charming effect on my stone Sleeping Beauty, and my mind was still void of any possible cure.

She was as still as ever.

That was when I realized there was no reaction at all to my kissing Bella – not even a hint of disgust from the former best friend who sat behind me, not so much as a snort of disdain from his pack. The concern for Bella was all around me, and it came from wolves and vampires alike. It took hearing Quil's thoughts for me to make sense of why they cared. He was thinking about the change in Jake, and how by saving Ness, Bella had saved his Alpha's true mate and helped him find a level of happiness neither of his pack mates thought possible of their perennially dour leader.

Their gratitude for Bella's actions softened their attitudes towards Bella herself, and the rest of us by association.

I suppose stranger things had happ—

"Ness, no!"

Jake's voice, coupled with his thoughts as the young woman rose from the couch and took a step towards Bella, pulled me roughly from my thoughts.

I knew Ness posed no threat to Bella at all, so her approach triggered no protective instincts within me. In truth, I was too stunned that she'd try to move closer of her own volition to worry about her motives.

"B-Bella?"

There was no reaction next to me.

Ness shifted her attention to me, her eyes and mind both questioning. I saw the direction of Ness' thoughts and nodded at her. What the hell, it might work. Sure as hell nothing I'd tried had done any good.

"Ness," Jake hissed from across the coffee table, clearly uneasy.

"I'm all right, Jake. She won't hurt me."

I could see Jake starting to tremble from the corner of my eye. Not from anger or fear, though. This tremble had one specific cause; a cause we knew very well and probably the least helpful reaction given the current situation. "Jasper," I said softly, an indication to my brother upstairs to settle the puppy before he did something we'd all regret.

Trusting my brother to calm Jake down, I turned my back on him and focused on the women next to me.

Ness was kneeling in front of Bella now, her small, slight hand resting on Bella's diamond-hard one.

"Bella. I haven't had a chance to thank you, yet. For saving my life. It's why I came here, why I had to see you myself. I don't know why you did it. You could have come after me, like Jimmy did to Kathy. But you didn't. You tried to save my dad, you chased away the bear, you kept me safe until the Cullens came and brought me to Jake. You saved my life, Bella. And you brought love into it – for me, and for Jake. Please come back so I can thank you, so we both can. You didn't leave me before, please don't leave me now."

I saw Bella move before anyone else. It wasn't much, just a twitch in the picture Bella clutched in her hands, enough to tell me she was coming back from wherever she'd gone.

Ness was the second to notice, feeling Bella's fingers shift under her touch.

"Bella?" Her voice was still a soft whisper.

The melting continued. Bella shed her stone stance like ice in the desert, her own small hand turning in Ness' grip, threading their fingers. I kept close watch on Ness' face and thoughts – just in case in the stress of the moment, Bella forgot her own strength.

"You said his name was Jimmy," Bella murmured.

"Yes," Ness answered then asked the question we all wanted to ask. "Do you know him?"

Bella's eyes closed. We all waited, breaths held, for her to continue.

"Knew him," she said at last. "Past tense."

Her eyes turned from Ness to me. It was my turn to gasp when I saw the terror in her eyes. Whether for her memories or her current situation, I didn't know. Nor did I think it mattered. As Bella was coming out of her stone shock, she was coming back to a mind filled with fear.

I needed to get her away from here. Not from the human girl – I honestly believed that Ness could slice open her own arm and let the blood run free at this point. For whatever reason, Bella had imprinted on this girl as surely as Jake had – it was Bella's way of keeping a little of the human she'd once been alive. Balancing the scales, as she'd said.

Her attachment to the human girl notwithstanding, Bella's shock was starting to break. And that meant I had very little time. If there was one thing I'd learned about Bella, it was her coping mechanisms. Shock would send her statute still…until she broke through that and fled. She was barely hanging on as it was. Whatever she'd remembered while her body had been on lockdown, I had to get her away before she completely surfaced. Before she could run again.

"Jake," I said, my voice as calm and peaceful as I could make it. "I think we need to continue this…some other time."

I heard Ness start to protest in her mind, clearly not happy with the idea. I ignored her.

"What's..."

I felt Bella shudder against my side.

"Later, Jake. Just…later. Trust me."

I didn't wait for approval or even acknowledgement. My arm slipped around Bella and kept her fixed to my side. Her body's tremors were getting more and more noticeable.

 _Ness!_

Jake's panic for his mate flooded my mind. I shook my head. "No, not that. She's not going to attack, Jake. I just. We just. We need to leave."

For the first time in my life, I wished the mind reading actually went both ways. It would have been easier to send the thoughts to him, to everyone, to explain. Right now, though, there wasn't enough time.

"Edward. Hurry."

Bella's voice propelled me faster than if I'd been shot from a gun. I trusted Jasper to have felt my emotional state, and Bella's, clearly enough to handle the explanations for me. I held tight to Bella and ran us at full vampire speed out the back door and into the forest.

I didn't stop, not for miles, not until I felt Bella's fingers against my chest and heard her soft voice over the rush of wind past our ears.

"Stop."

It took a second for her word to penetrate, another for my feet to stop their frenetic run.

I set her gently on her feet, but kept her close to my body. Just in case.

"I'm all right now," she said softly, her hands working to try and loosen my grip on her. My hands weren't having any of it, though, and kept a tight hold. The more she tried to free them, the tighter I held her. I knew I was risking setting her back to the days when even my hand on hers would make her uneasy. The risk was worth it.

"Edward?" Her small, slight hand rested on my cheek. "I'm all right now."

Some of the doubt must have shown on my face because the next thing I knew, her lips were on mine. I let myself sink into the kiss, let her mouth take hold of mine. That didn't stop me from keeping part of my attention hyper-focused on her stance, her body against mine; and braced for the slightest indication that she was going to bolt.

"I wasn't going to run away, Edward. I just needed space, air. I needed to think."

I just kissed her forehead.

She sighed. "You're still worried, aren't you?"

"Can you blame me?" I countered.

She sighed. "No, I can't and I know it's my fault. I haven't reacted well, running off when I didn't know how to deal. But it's all I knew, the only way I knew cope. Sometimes the only way I could work through things is being out here." Her arms spread wide to indicate the forest around her. "It's like, I…dunno."

I saw the frown line form as she tried to come up with a comparison. Much as I wanted to butt in with my own, I kept quiet and let her find her own words for it.

"Like the first time I was at your house, remember, when Alice was helping me get dressed? She gave me a dress and I put it on, but as soon as I did, I started fidgeting. It just felt wrong against my skin. Then it wasn't just the dress, the whole house felt wrong. I felt like I needed to toss the whole thing off, get back to what was familiar. Almost as soon as I put the dress on, though, she reached for it again and gave me a pair of jeans instead. I put those on and, it was better – the house was still uncomfortable, but I could handle it."

I gave her a wry smile, remembering that day. "Until I touched you and send you running into the night."

Bella's head ducked in a non-blush. There was a stiffness behind it that hadn't been there when I'd embarrassed her before. Something she'd thought, or felt, when I'd mentioned her reaction to my touching her that night. I knew those reactions were in the past – she was comfortable in my arms now. I just couldn't help thinking that there was more going on behind Bella's eyes than her expression was showing.

Silently, I cursed my inability to penetrate her mind.

"The running was the same thing," Bella was saying, breaking through my musing. "Go away, get away, to something familiar, something comfortable – then I could work through the other things a little easier."

"Is that why you asked me to run you out of there?"

She nodded. "I didn't want to frighten Ness. She was already so brave, coming so close to her darkest fear, just to comfort me. The last thing I wanted to do was scare her away by going all weird on her. Or, I guess, weirder than I'd already gone."

I tipped her chin up. "You weren't weird at all. Just," I paused, grinned, "a little still."

"Right, because that's not strange at all, is it? Going from speaking to the Venus de Milo in the blink of her eye?"

I thought of Bella's relative newness to this life, her even more recent conversion to the life of an animal drinker, and the fact the girl she'd been trying to protect had been a living, breathing, heart-beating human mere inches away from her (something that had plagued Jasper for decades and still did on occasion).

I smiled back and ducked in to kiss her forehead. "All things considered? Not really."

We started our walk back to the house once I was sure the flight risk had passed. I texted Alice to pass on the word that we were fine and headed home (to which she'd responded with an eloquent "Duh!") We were taking our time, though, in no hurry. No doubt Jake and his little family were gone not long after our unceremonious departure. I couldn't see Jake or his pack hanging around the Tickville, as Embry so humorously referred to it, longer than absolutely necessary.

Bella broke the silence when we were about halfway home.

"Fifty years."

I turned to look at her, question in my eyes. "Pardon?"

"I've decided. You asked earlier if I could blame you for getting worried about me running away when I got upset."

"And you said I no, that I wasn't to blame for thinking that."

"Right. So I was thinking about it, and I think fifty years is a fair amount of time."

I pressed my lips together. The smile escaped anyway. "Fifty years then? Is that all I get?"

She poked a finger into my belly. "No. That's how long you get to doubt that I won't run away when I get surprised without me getting mad about it. At fifty-one years, I start kicking your ass for doubting me. Fair enough?"

The escaped smile swelled and pushed out the last of the frowning. "Fair enough."

My intention had been to seal the bargain with a kiss. It was how deals between lovers were struck and forged, I believed, if watching my family members was any indication. What I should have known is the reaction of our bodies the second our lips touched. Spontaneous combustion. I didn't need to read her mind to know it was mutual. The deep, almost guttural groan vibrating against my lips was proof enough of that.

"Bella..." Her name was plea, prayer, question and answer.

"Edward," she responded in kind.

The hand in my hair tightened and pulled. Closer. We needed to be closer. Our bodies pressed together as the kiss burned on, but no matter how great the pressure we asserted, we couldn't get close enough. My hands tightened on her hips, lifting her easily until her legs wrapped around my waist. It wasn't enough. All that lift managed to do was brush our bodies together in dangerous fashion.

Our eyes met and another flash burn passed between us. Would there ever be a time the simplest touch wouldn't result in this sudden and overpowering need? Logically I knew there would be. I'd seen members of my family pass through this, move beyond the driving need. Carlisle and Esme, Rose and Emmett, all had spent years, a decade, locked so entirely to their mates that sometimes even a touch wasn't needed. One look and the pair would go into conflagration to the point no mental blocking techniques worked and I'd have to leave the house for a few hours.

In all of my experiences, I'd never felt what they had – the all-encompassing need that could take them over at a simple look, an innocent touch. Frankly, I'd thought they were just showing off.

Now, though, as Bella's clever fingers flipped open the button of my jeans, I not only knew they weren't showing off, I also couldn't help wondering how they'd practiced as much restraint as they had. All I'd done was place a chaste kiss to Bella's lips and in a blink the entirety of my being was focused solely on the girl in front of me...and my burning need to bury myself inside her.

With that in mind, my hands had not been idle. As the fly of my jeans parted and erection was freed from its denim prison, I'd made sure Bella's breasts were enjoying a similar freedom. Her shirt and bra formed a puddle at our feet, the silk and lace barely settling on the ground before my hands came up to take their place. Soft flesh filled my palms, warm and heavy, pebbled nipples pressing into my palms igniting the lust inside me that was already at near fever pitch.

"So beautiful," I whispered into her ear before kissing my way down along her jaw.

"It's the venom," she said, just as my lips reached the corner of her mouth.

The comment, however off-hand, derailed me. Did she really think that? Could she? I shoved the raging need to the side. My libido fought kicking and screaming, begging me to talk about it later...much, much later. I didn't listen. I raised my hands off her breasts to cup her face instead.

"It's no such thing, Bella. Venom doesn't create beauty, it just augments what's already there. I know your human face from pictures." My lips traveled over every inch of her face, leaving no section of it unattended. "And I know if I'd met you first as a human, I'd have felt the same attraction. The same desire."

"Desire, huh?"

Her tone was light, her eyes were full of teasing and her hand was full of...me. I groaned as her clever fingers ghosted over my sensitive flesh like a master with her instrument. My eyes searched hers and I was surprised when her head shook.

"I'd rather not debate my looks right now, if it's all the same to you?" She gave my cock another long, slow stroke for emphasis.

What can I say? I wanted to make my point that I found her beautiful without the aid or enhancement of venom, I truly did. Bella's counter argument was, however, a powerful one. It was the last bit of leverage my libido needed to wrest control away and refocus me on the matter at hand. Or hands.

God, her hands.

"Bella," I groaned into the night while her fingers continued to dance over my cock.

Her only answer was a soft, almost whimpering moan.

I made short work of our clothes after that. My shirt and our pants joining the growing puddle of clothing at our feet. When it came to Bella's panties, however, I slowed my movements. I had been careful as I could be with our outer garments while still getting us down to bare skin as quickly as possible. But when Bella stood before me in nothing but a scrap of black lace, I decided such a moment required attention, if not downright reverence.

Her hands fisted in my hair as I knelt before her, fingertips hooked under the waistband of lace at each hip. Instead of tugging downward, I let a single finger trace the outline of the lace from waist to legs. I lingered just a little at the juncture of her thighs, slipping one long finger between them to brush against her center. That finger came back wet.

"So ready for me already?" I said, my eyes traveling up her body to find hers.

"A-Always," she whispered back. Her hips arched, bucking toward me in silent plea. When I didn't answer, she added a spoken, "please."

"I was just trying to be careful. I didn't want to damage them," I explained while my fingers eased them down, very slowly down, her legs.

Her hands gripped my shoulders when I finally had them low enough for her to kick them aside. She pulled in anticipation of my rising back to my feet. I didn't move.

"Not just yet," I said, hands on her thighs, coaxing them apart. "Open for me, Bella."

I heard her gasp above me, felt the warmth of her breath cascade over me. For a second, I thought she'd deny me, then her legs parted and her aroma filled my senses. I moved closer, then closer still. I could hear nothing but her shallow, panting breath and the occasional whimper of anticipated desire. Confident that she wasn't uncomfortable with my actions, I focused my attention to the warm, wet folds before me.

I kept my motions slow at first, nuzzling her with nose, lips and tongue gently to get her used to the sensation. My courtesy only lasted as long as it took Bella's hand to drop onto the top of my head. She threaded her fingers into my hair and gave it a hard pull. I nearly stopped. Then she spoke; her voice, low and raspy as I'd never heard it before.

"More."

Her hips bucked towards my mouth, almost to emphasize her point, and I threw off the last of my restraint.

I devoured her.

I left no centimeter of her body unexplored. My tongue, teeth and lips worked in harmony to wring every ounce of pleasure from her. Teeth nibbled, tongue soothed, and lips suckled her swollen clit granting no quarter, no time to recover between attacks. The hands on her hips kept her still, making sure she stayed just as I wanted her until I felt her body begin to spasm.

"Edward, I..."

I didn't let her finish. Instead I slid my hand from her hip to inner thigh, one long finger slipping inside her just as I covered her clit with my mouth and sucked. I felt the explosion against my finger a nanosecond before her body went rigid in release. Her voice cried out my name as wave after wave of her orgasm washed over me. My mouth was unrelenting until the last spasm ended.

Slowly I moved my mouth away, kissing along her hipbone then back across her lower belly. I intended to kiss my way back up her body. Bella, apparently, had other ideas. Before my mouth neared her navel, I felt two strong newborn hands hit my shoulders and push me backwards. Her strength combined with my awkward stance on my knees meant that I toppled over and landed flat on my back.

"Bella...what?"

I managed that one question only before Bella captured me, and covered me. Her body sank down in one fluid motion, not stopping until she was fully impaled on my cock. "Fuck..." I managed to growl out as pleasure burst through me.

"Oh, I intend to," she said with a wicked smile and proceeded to do just that. I couldn't do more than watch as her body rose and fell over me. Her hips rocked backward and forward, each motion drawing my cock deeper and deeper inside her body. I raised my hands to her hips and tried to move them farther up. The way her breasts moved made me want to touch, to tease, but she batted my hands away. My brow knit in confusion until I saw her hands rise, fingers splayed over her belly. Higher and higher they rose until she cupped her breasts, her fingers teasing puckered nipples.

Oh, God.

My cock surged inside her as I lay at her mercy, my eyes fixed as she touched and played with herself, my body focused on the wet heat surrounding my cock. My entire being was focused on my love as she moved and writhed and touched. I felt the pressure build, in my lower back, in my balls, and I knew release was seconds away. I managed to wrench my eyes away from her mesmerizing fingers and body then, just as our eyes met, my orgasm burst through me like a supernova.

"Yes, yes, yes!" I cried out into the night.

 _Yes, yes yes!_

Her answering cries echoed over me, lost in the shattering pleasure that left me weak and spent on the other side, shaking beneath her even as she collapsed across my chest. We were silent for a long time as our bodies floated softly back to earth. Daylight gave way to dusk, our fingers traveling slowly over skin, drawing patterns, tracing words.

"That was..."

"Yeah, it was," she answered and we both laughed.

A lone owl hooted off in the distance and I laughed again. "One of these days we might actually make it to a bed."

Bella laughed softly, her breath tickling my ear. "Why mess with what works?"

As night fell completely, we rose and dressed to head back to the house. With every step back, the reason for our flight into the forest came back. While we'd discussed the reason for her flight from the house, my concern over what had caused her body's lockdown was still very real.

"Before," I said softly, breaking the silence. "Back at the house. With Ness and...and the picture."

Her thoughts must have been in tandem with mine. There was no sign of surprise or stress, just a resigned sort of sigh. I watched her expressions carefully, trying to gauge what she was thinking. I had no luck whatsoever. She started to speak then stopped several times in the space of only a few seconds, never making more than a breath of sound.

"You said you knew him." I prompted, speaking whisper-soft into the silence between us.

"Yes," she replied in kind. I could feel her body growing rigid again.

"From your vampire life? Or your human one?"

Her answer this time was a long time in coming. "Both."

"He turned you?"

A frown creased her otherwise smooth brow, cleaving the skin between her eyebrows in half.

"I don't know. Possibly?" She sighed. "Probably."

"Tell me what you remembered."

"Him. I remember his face as soon as I saw it, even though the picture is so blurry. Didn't matter. I knew him. Know him. At first, that's all there was. Just images. Flashes. A hundred different expressions of the same face over and over again. Far away, close up, upside down, rightside up, clear, cloudy. Then I remembered his voice – again, clear then garbled, then clear again. Like a radio that's not tuned right."

I knew then that there was no possibly or probably about it. She was remembering this Jimmy from both human and vampire perspectives. I had the same versions of my memories of Carlisle – clear and clouded. The evidence that this Jimmy was Bella's sire was stacking up with every new bit of information.

"What else?" I asked then, because I could see her lips moving; her mind continuing the story before her voice caught up.

"What do you mean?"

"I know you, Bella. Just remembering his face and voice would have shocked you, yes, but it wouldn't be enough to send you into panic. Did you remember something else?"

She nodded.

I waited.

"Pain. I remembered pain."

My arms came around her; not to hold her still this time, just to comfort.

"…and I remembered fear."

It was my turn to stiffen this time, and I did, but my arms remained around her. "I know, Bella, I know. And I can't say I'm surprised. It's the worst memory for us all: the pain of the burning, the fear of what's happening to our bodies, not knowing how long the torture will go on." I leaned in and kissed her forehead.

Her wide sunset eyes met mine, a shimmer of that fear still in them. "No. It wasn't my transformation. It was different. Edward, I remember those things as human."

It took a second for her words to register. My arms tightened when they did. Whatever had transpired to change Bella from human to vampire – it hadn't ever been as simple as a bite to the neck of the dying and a three day burn.

We all thought of that pain as the worst version of hell on earth.

I was beginning to think we didn't know the half of it.

* * *


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N: Do I really need to reiterate the disclaimer again?_

I watched the two women from behind the glass doors leading to the back lawn. It had been weeks now since the first time Ness came to the house – under guard of the full Quileute pack and following several tense negotiations. Now, her presence at the house was almost as commonplace as Bella's.

I couldn't stop the smile that thought generated and didn't try. Bella had moved into the house, and into our lives, seamlessly. There had been a few changes wrought – a change of bedroom for me to a larger room more suited to two than one. I'd also stopped attending school with my siblings. I had made it through one unending day at the infernal place before I made my case to Carlisle that we send me off on scholarship somewhere for the remainder of the school year. To my everlasting delight, he agreed without argument. We both knew it was because if he pressed the issue I'd cut classes to come back – neither of us wanted to walk down the truancy road.

And, of course, the biggest change to my living conditions – a bed had been purchased and delivered the day after our return from the forest. A bed that had been put to its intended use several times over the ensuing weeks.

Another smile creased my face in two – because Bella still preferred the forest floor.

 _Amazing, isn't it?_

My father's thoughts reached me before he did, walking down from the third floor where he'd been with Esme. I switched my thoughts from the past back to the present; both of us smiling as Ness dissolved into giggles over something Bella'd said.

"It is," I answered aloud when I heard him behind me. "Laughing like long-lost friends. Or something even stronger."

My father only nodded. "Jasper said he still feels the same emotions from her, that it's still closer to mother and child than anything he's ever felt. Closer even that what feels Esme towards all of you."

I thought about what Bella had told me in the forest a few weeks before, about how she'd felt like she was balancing the scales by saving this girl. How her world had been upended with a father had lost his daughter; and how she thought to undo the damage by saving a daughter after the loss of her father.

When Bella and I had returned from our run into the forest, Bella had gone straight to Ness without a look for anyone else. Their embrace had been more reminiscent of family being reunited after tragedy or long absence than vampire and human. No fear from Ness, no bloodlust from Bella – just two people drawing strength from one another and giving strength in return. They'd clung together for what felt like hours, as if each would be ripped from the Earth's surface if the other didn't hold tightly enough.

In retrospect, the reactions to that hug had been probably looked beyond comical; no matter the stress felt at the time. While the women embraced, a protective circle had formed around them. Vampires and wolves had faced off, snarling and circling, each a step away from battle to protect the "victims." Both of whom had been completely clueless about the tensions surrounding them.

Bella had been the first to notice. She had looked up and around at the rest of us, taking in our reactions. Her eyes had shot figurative laser beams – first to me, then to Jacob. I'd retracted my stance, albeit a bit more slowly than she'd probably wanted. Ness had taken a minute longer to realize just what was going on then she'd admonished the lot of us to "grow up."

My eyes had met Jake's and another of those moments of utter and complete understanding passed between us. Those were getting damned unsettling and happening entirely too frequently for my taste.

In the weeks since, and after another round of negotiations, Bella and Ness had been given leave to spend as much time together as they wished. The only concessions they had to give were that Ness would come with a pair of wolves, and Bella would stay off the reservation. Both had readily agreed.

They wasted no time at all making use of the time they'd been given, spending nearly every afternoon together. Sometimes they walked through the forests, sometimes they hung around up in our room with Alice and Rosalie – the lot of them giggling as they paged through fashion magazines and shopped online, sometimes they just sat here like they were now, enjoying a rare afternoon without rain.

Those seemed to be Ness' favorites; she liked to sit with her sunglasses on and tease Bella about the glare.

For reasons none of us could fathom, Bella was absolutely unfazed by being in such close proximity to the human girl. It was as I'd thought that afternoon when Ness first came over – the young woman could have sliced into her skin and bled freely and Bella would have had no reaction whatsoever. Almost as if Ness was the exact opposite of a singer in that Bella was totally immune to her.

Carlisle had certainly never heard of the like, nor had the few friends he'd reached out to for answers. None of us mentioned asking anyone in Italy. The less they knew about us, really, the better. We were curious, yes, but not enough to shine a beacon that they'd have no choice but follow and investigate.

Her immunity, however, was limited to Ness alone. After the first week of visits during which Bella had not so much as felt a glimmer of thirst, we started to wonder if Bella might just be able to handle all humans.

As a test, I'd decided to take her myself to a mall in Seattle – nothing much, just a shopping trip so she could pick out some clothes for herself rather than be at the mercy of Alice's choices. Before I could even give the idea voice, Alice had stolen the keys to every car we owned.

I was about to question her when she showed me the carnage in her vision – Bella gone utterly insane due the overwhelming and overpowering number of humans in close proximity. There had been no survivors. I thanked whatever gods listened to the undead for gifting my sister with her sight and saving us from that nightmare.

The sounds of the girls' laughter rang across the expanse of lawn between us, breaking us both from our thoughts. The sound of it had Carlisle and I both smiling.

"Has she told you anything else? About this Jimmy and what she remembered?"

"No," I answered flatly.

Bella's silence over the memories that had locked her down was the only point of contention in a relationship that had done nothing but bloom since we'd been reunited. For her own reasons, Bella had chosen to stay mute and secured a promise from me to leave Ness' mind alone as well. Whatever her memories, she was keeping them to herself. The idea didn't sit right with me though I wasn't sure if stemmed from wanting to protect Bella…or my petulance at being denied something I wanted.

My father chuckled softly. "And let me guess, she made you promise to keep your gift far away from Ness where this information is concerned?"

"Yes." And hadn't that been a fun conversation?

"I don't have to ask if you're sticking to that."

I snorted. "Because if I wasn't, I wouldn't be all broody about it?"

"No, because it's not sort of man you are, no matter how tempting it might be."

Few things warmed me, but my father's praise never failed to do just that.

"Alice hasn't seen anything either?"

"Not since that lovely little vision of Bella at the mall. She's actually focusing on designing again, said the most interesting thing she's seen in days is Jasper losing his temper over a new book on the Civil War, focusing on the role Texas played. Apparently, it's horribly inaccurate and he's not going to take it well."

"Does he ever?"

We both smiled. My newest brother was just the smallest bit touchy about the War of Northern Aggression, as he preferred to call it. The only thing he was more sensitive about was his status as a Texan. Combine these two and touchy had the potential to go straight to explosive. I was starting to wish we ate, so I could make a big bowl of popcorn to munch on while watching Jasper read the book.

"And Bella?" Carlisle said, breaking through my thoughts. "Alice still sees her staying with us? With you?"

My answering smile stretched my face from ear to ear. "Yes, she sees no decision on Bella's part to leave us, to leave me."

And I'd had no indication from Bella that she had any intention of leaving, either. Quite the opposite, actually. If the way we still combust at the merest touch was any indication, centuries might not be enough time to cool that burn.

Carlisle nodded. "I thought as much, I just wanted to be sure before I started to put things in motion."

"What things?"

"If Bella's staying with us, that means we should be leaving Forks sooner than later."

I turned to him, confused. "What do you mean?" We usually tried to stay in one spot for at least five or six years, longer if we could stretch it. We'd barely been in Forks for half of that.

"She may have changed, Edward, and we're keeping her well away from humans. Still, accidents do happen and she looks enough like her human self that being seen by anyone from Forks would cause questions we really don't want to have to answer. Especially from the Chief. The community still feels her loss, and erroneous sightings still come in to the police station."

At my questioning look, he continued. "I heard the nurses gossiping about it a few months ago. The slightest indication she's been spotted and the Chief is gone to check it out. Went as far as Los Angeles once on a call from one of Bella's classmates swearing she saw Bella at Disneyland while they were there on vacation. He's not the sort to leave any stone unturned, especially where his daughter is concerned. It's not a risk worth taking that another friend spots her even by accident."

Even though I saw the truth of it, I still hesitated. A week ago, this wouldn't have bothered me in the slightest. Over the decades, moving to another town had been become as commonplace as putting on a different pair of shoes. Just something to be done – there hadn't ever been anything to miss, nothing to leave behind. Now, however, looking over the two women laughing in the sunlight? I felt a pit of dread form in my stomach. How was I going to tell Bella she'd have to leave here, leave Ness?

I saw Jake stir from his perch on the back deck, his head turned towards us. Our voices had been low while we'd spoken to keep Bella from overhearing us. I'd honestly never thought about the puppy's super-sharp ears. Seemed I was about to pay for that oversight.

With a grace that belied his size, Jake crossed the deck in a few short strides and opened the sliding glass door separating us from the outside.

"Can I help you?" I asked, snide out of habit. We understood each other too well these days for my tone to have any bite behind it.

"Heard Charlie's name and tuned in," he shrugged unapologetically. Thankfully, he kept his voice down as well. Seemed no one wanted Bella to hear what we were saying. "You're right about Charlie. He and my dad are as close, have been pretty much their whole lives. He comes down to the Res most weekends, fishing or watching sports with Dad. Says he can't take being in the house, it's just too empty without her. Still. Can't do anything but agree that he'd go insane if a local sighting cropped up. It'd be like it was when she first went missing."

I could see through Jake's memories the crazed grief on the Chief's face and nodded once. I couldn't put anyone through that again, even involuntarily. The man had been through enough.

"I was just wondering if you had a timeline in mind."

He was thinking about the younger boys on the reservation, not wanting another generation to have to take on the burden the pack shared. While no others had phased save he, Embry and Quil, he very much wanted to keep it that way. The names of a few younger boys on the reservation flitted across his mind – Seth, Brady, Collin – hoping that with our departure, he could keep them from his fate. On the fringes of that thought, though, was the one that plagued me. Both of us shifted our attention back on Bella and Ness again. Our thoughts were nearly identical and the glance we shared confirmed it.

How would we ever be able to separate them?

Oblivious to the train of our thoughts, Carlisle answered while Jake and I tried not to wince from the inevitable pain we'd be causing. "I'd say within the year at the very latest. I won't leave the hospital without due notice, or without finding a suitable replacement. Then there's the question of where we'll settle next. Those things take time to set up."

Jake merely nodded, then we both looked at each other. I answered our joint thought. "Nowhere near long enough for them to get sick of each other," I said.

"But long enough for them to get truly attached."

"It's not like it won't happen eventually, though, right? I mean, we're immortal, she isn't. And unless you're asking us to…"

In answer Jake growled, low and menacing.

"Didn't think so. Which means our leaving, however, early or late it happens, it's a necessary step. They can visit, but it's probably a better thing that we give them distance as well. It'll make it…make it easier for them both when the inevitable happens."

Because I heard his thoughts as he dwelled on that comment, I searched for a swift change of subject. It didn't take me long to find a new one. "She's staying here then, with you?"

Jake nodded, grateful to be pulled free of the dark place he'd gone to and focus on the light before him. "Nowhere else to go, really. She has no family. Her mother died in childbirth and her father never remarried. It's been just the two of them for as long as she can remember. No extended family. Some friends and neighbors back home, but no one close. We're going to go back in a few weeks, once the paperwork's in, and close up the house. All of that."

"How old is she?" Carlisle asked.

"Nineteen," Jake replied.

We all smiled a bit at the sheepish look on his face. To any casual glance, the man beside would be easily taken for someone in his early to mid twenties. His size, voice, the air of maturity he'd gained as both leader of his pack and protector of his tribe all combined to throw off the impression of a much older man. In reality, however, Jake was chronologically only seventeen years old.

Jake snorted. "Before you ask, yes, she knows. Shocked hell out of her, but she knows."

"Little Ness is robbin' the cradle. Nice," Emmett piped up from the game room on the floor above us.

"Fuck off, Emmett," Jake said back and I was heartened to see a blush to his cheeks. A blush I studiously avoided looking at, and didn't comment on. Whatever he'd gone through – both because of his birthright and our presence in his life – the kid deserved to be happy and stupidly, blushingly in love without any snide comment from me. Besides. Was I any different, really, save the fact I couldn't blush?

Carlisle was still all business. "Do you have a lawyer, Jake? To handle all these details?"

Jake blinked. "Lawyer? No, I thought. I mean. Can't we just go to her house, get her stuff and, I dunno, sell the rest?"

I pressed my lips together. Carlisle was better for this conversation. He'd help Jake see what was needed…without the sarcasm I was likely to stir into the mix. Good intentions aside, sometimes I just couldn't help myself.

"You could, but I'm assuming he had life insurance, the father. As well as a house? Investments, and so on. Getting those things settled, as well as ensuring that she's not taken advantage of…well, I have no doubt you'd be more than capable of seeing to it all, but it might make it easier to hand all of the red tape off to an estate lawyer. Keep the stress off of you both so you can focus on her healing and recovery from losing her father."

Damn the man was good. Get Jake focused on Ness, and what she needed, not the fact he'd have to turn to someone else for help. Was it any wonder he'd managed to live under human's noses for centuries and never stir up even a whiff of suspicion?

"Yeah, yeah. That's a good idea." He cocked an eyebrow at Carlisle. "I'd ask if you know any, but I'm sure you do. I'm also sure that if you do, they cost a bazillion dollars an hour."

Carlisle smiled. "Any decent lawyer would be. We keep a firm on retainer; though, which means we pay them a lump fee yearly to see to any legal needs we may have, without the burden of billing hours. I'm certain I could ask them to step in give you their assistance. We'd be happy too…"

"No. No chance. I'm not taking money from a pack of leeches."

He sounded like the same as ever, bigoted towards us as he'd ever been. But just as my nasty greeting earlier hadn't had any bite behind it, neither did his. He bitched mostly out of habit. There was only the slightest hint of pride in his thoughts.

"Jake? What's wrong?"

He turned when he heard her voice, like a divining rod towards a hidden river. His arm snaked around her back the second she was close enough to touch. He pulled her into his side and the peace and happiness he radiated was enough to put Jasper in a coma.

My smug smile disappeared when Bella came to stand at my side and I felt the same happiness flood me. Two peas in a pod, Jake and I were. And it was damned disturbing.

"Nothing's wrong, Ness," Jake said.

She turned and gave him a look. "Then you were being rude and calling these nice people leeches for no reason?"

"Busted," Emmett interjected from above us again.

"Shut up, Emmett," Jake growled back.

I felt Bella's body shaking a bit, and I could tell she was working to keep her laughter hidden. In truth, all of us were fighting smiles. Emmett had that effect on people.

"Carlisle, will you tell me what I missed, since Jake doesn't seem in any hurry to explain himself?"

Jake exhaled loudly. "Carlisle and I were talking about lawyers, for taking care of the house and your stuff and…everything."

"I thought we might need one, but I didn't know where to even start looking. I mean, what if the one we picked was like movie-of-the-week bad and royally screwed us?" She turned wide, brown eyes to my father. "Could you recommend one, by any chance?"

I watched Jake carefully, interested to see how he'd handle imparting this part of the conversation. "Ah, that's about where you overheard me. Carlisle was offering to talk to someone on our behalf and…"

He trailed off under her stare.

"I'm waiting to see why you'd find the need to insult him for such a generous offer." She paused, made a look like she was expecting something, then nodded. "I thought as much. Either pride over accepting help or prejudice over the fact they're vampires was talking, right?"

Jakes mouth opened. Closed. Repeated. We all took that for the Jake equivalent of "yes, dear."

"Well then, as soon as you apologize for your offensive words, we can only hope that Carlisle accepts it and is still willing to help us."

Jake just stood there, looking like he'd been hit with a very soft sledgehammer.

Carlisle, having very little luck in keeping his own laughter down, waved it off. "It's perfectly all right, Vanessa. Some habits are very hard to break, and we took no offense at all. Our family does have a law firm on retainer and one of the partners is an esteemed estate lawyer. I'd be very happy to set up a time for you to meet, perhaps in Port Angeles?"

Ness beamed a smile at him. "That would be perfect. Now that that's been handled…"

She stopped speaking, her eyes fixed on Bella.

Bella who, during my amusement at the conversation in front of me, had turned towards the forest.

"Bella?" I said, and I heard the human girl echo my thoughts.

 _Edward,_ she thought at me, _what's wrong with her?_

Her question was echoed in the thoughts around us.

I shook my head at Ness, then spoke for those who couldn't see me. "I don't know."

Then Bella answered for all of us.

"James," Bella said, her voice a whisper but loud enough for Ness to hear. "I can hear him."

The name was foreign to me. I felt my brow crease as I cast my mind back, trying to attach any significance to it. I came up short. As did the family members around me, even Jake didn't have a clue.

Then the human's mind registered, her thoughts almost a scream. James. Jimmy was here.

Here.

Jimmy. The murderer of Ness' best friend.

James. Bella's sire.

One and the same, and now near enough for Bella to hear.

"What's he saying?" Ness asked Bella, her hands on Bella's cheeks.

"My name."

Armed with that knowledge, we all turned our heads in the direction of the forest. Sure enough, there it was. His soft whisper was buried within the rustle of leaves on branches – just one name on repeat. Bella Bella Bella.

A low growl filled the house, male and female voices melded in one chorus of warning.

The house phone rang at the same time as the cell phone in Carlisle's pocket. Alice, I suspected, trapped shopping in Seattle with Esme and Jasper, calling to tell us what we already knew. Her visions again victim to the circumstances – to whatever decision the nomad had made that brought his path from benign to malignant without enough time for a sufficient warning.

Across from me, Jake stripped and phased to his wolf form. He thought nothing of his nudity and frankly, hyper-focused as we all were, none of us really registered it either.

We ignored the phones, none of us willing to turn our attention away from the forest long enough to answer. Her call was enough to warn us to be on our guard, and we weren't without resources of our own. It would have been nice to have the whole family here, but Emmett, Rosalie, Carlisle and I were match enough, I thought, for this twisted nomad.

"Jake," I said softly. "Embry?"

Jake shook his big head. _Gone back to LaPush as soon as I phased. I want him with Quil on the res, protecting the people. They can be here in minutes if I need them, but…_

But with a human blood drinker in the vicinity, Jake was taking no chances. I understood that well enough.

I nodded my understanding back at him. "Emmett," I said. "Rose?"

"Right here," my brother answered from just behind me.

"Edward. Can you hear him?"

I answered with a terse nod. It was all I could manage. If I let my control slip, even just enough to speak, I'd have launched myself into the forest to rip the other vampire to pieces. Every nightmarish supposition I'd had about what had happened to Bella at this vampire's hand was confirmed in his thoughts.

"Well? What's he thinking?" The imminent threat had my brother on edge.

James answered before I could.

"Bellaaa. Lovely Bella. Come out, come out wherever you are."

My hand shot out to her at the same time Emmett's did. Both of us for different reasons. Me to comfort, Emmett to restrain. As it turned out, Emmett's reaction was the more appropriate. Whatever she'd suffered, the woman beside me was no traumatized victim. Instead, she seemed to want vengeance on the man even more than I did.

"Easy, Bella," Emmett soothed her. "Going off in a blaze of glory only looks cool in the movies. Better to wait until the odds are in your favor. You keep your limbs attached for longer that way."

I had to give it to him – for all his uncouth ways, Em did have a way of cutting through the bullshit.

Bella responded to his words and tone and I felt her ease back, sensed her body rising out of its hunting crouch.

"Shy again, Bella? I thought we were beyond that by now, you and me," the voice called out from the trees. "Maybe you can send your little friend out instead? She smells...intriguing. Almost familiar somehow..."

That statement was met with a chorus of growls, human and wolf.

I heard the shift in his thoughts at once.

I kept my voice low. "He heard you, Jake. And he's only heard that sound once before, somewhere in Europe."

 _Good. We can use that to our advantage._

"That gives us an edge," Emmett said.

I snorted then looked at the pair of them. "You're both of the same mindset."

"Good. Saves time. So the question is how do we do this and keep Bella and Ness safe?"

The growl, this time, came straight from Bella's throat and practically pinned Emmett to the wall. "If you think for one second I'm hiding here in the house and not going after that...creature myself, you've got another think coming, Emmett Cullen."

The sputtered protests came from me, from Rose, even from Carlisle. But not, surprisingly, from Jake.

 _Let her fight._

I turned towards Jake. "What? Why? She's admitted she's not a fighter."

 _But she's got a score to settle. And she's stubborn as hell, trust me on that one. That's a lifetime of knowing her, and her father. You try to keep her away from this, she'll do everything she can to get right back in it, most likely doing more damage to herself in the process. Better to let her in from the start – just stay close to her._

I hissed. Out loud. Hating that once again, the damned wolf had a point. Hadn't I seen for myself just how stubborn she could be?

"Bella's fighting with us," I said to Emmett. The look on my face must have brooked no argument because Emmett's mouth shut with a snap. "We just have to get Ness out of here."

"Jake and I will take her," Carlisle interjected, causing all of us to turn to him.

 _No chance. I'm going after that bastard myself._

"Jake says he wants to fight," I translated.

"I'm not surprised, but still it's inadvisable. At least, not until she's somewhere safe."

 _And this place isn't?_

I translated again.

"Not from another vampire bent on getting in. One good jump and he's on the roof, another good one and he's through it. You're fast, Jake, I don't deny that. But it's not a risk I'm happy taking."

"Jake wants to know what you suggest?"

He turned to the wolf. "You and I run her to La Push. Get her inside the Reservation with Quil and Embry. Rose, Emmett, Edward and Bella can see to James. Once Ness is safe, you can run back and help if needed. This way, if James does somehow manage to evade the four of them, there will be two of us capable of protecting her."

We all chewed that one over, all of us wishing Alice were here to tell us whether the decision was the right; then realizing in the next breath that with Jake involved, she wouldn't have been able to see anything anyway.

Jake grunted beside me, big paws dancing along the hardwood in obvious agitation. He indicated his acceptance with another grudging snort.

We worked quickly once the decision had been made. While the debate had raged, I'd kept part of my mind focused on James. He was still there, pacing and contemplating his next move. About the time we'd come to our conclusions, he'd decided that the risk of whatever creature we were harboring was worth the payoff.

Worth getting the ones that got away.

His use of the plural would have turned my blood to ice if I still had any.

He was talking about the girls. Our girls. And he meant to finish them off.

A growl, low and protective, burst through my lips involuntarily and all eyes shifted towards me. I shook my head. "Nothing. Let's just get moving."

Within minutes, we were all on our way. Jake was running beside Carlisle's Mercedes, Ness carefully tucked inside the airtight compartment to ensure her scent wouldn't give her whereabouts away. Emmet, Rose, Bella and I were running across the back lawn towards James.

I heard his panicked thoughts when we burst into the woods, heard his flight instinct kick in and his terror when we got close enough to hear him crash through the trees around us. I nodded to Emmett and Rose, indicating a path to the right.

 _You want us to herd him towards you?_

I nodded.

Emmett grinned and put his hand on Rose's arm leading her in the direction I'd indicated.

They were just about to make the turn when I heard it. Another voice, another thought. It came out of nowhere and shook me down to the core.

 _Yes!_

"Emmett, stop!" I called out loud. "There's another one."


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N: Disclaimer – not mine, just what they do in the story_

"Emmett, stop!" I called out loud. "There's another one."

I had already stopped, my run halted the second I heard the alien thought. I sensed the others around me, watching me. I ignored them. My thoughts were centered on the forest surrounding us. I searched for the mind I'd heard, trying to pinpoint the direction I'd heard it from in the first place.

Then I heard something that utterly threw me.

I heard James' mind. And he was as surprised as we were.

Bella was still beside me, but I could feel her straining to move, her small, strong fingers tightening on my hand and tugging me back onto our path.

"Edward. He's getting away."

"No, love, he's not. He sensed it too, and he's searching, just like we are, to find out who it is."

Secure in the knowledge that she wasn't about to go tearing off without him, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the forest around me.

"Well?" Emmett asked.

I popped one eye open to glare at my brother. "Not helping," I growled back and resumed my intrusion into James' mind.

He knew the voice, though it sounded different to him. His mind filled with a picture of a beautiful human girl with long, curly red hair and bright green eyes. I saw her walking across a field of deep green grass the likes of which I'd not seen since our last trip to Europe. I winced when his memories of the girl took a trip down his particular brand of sadistic pleasure. I tried to focus on the details around him instead. The cottage, the tableware, the language discernable around the young woman's screams – whatever he'd done to this woman, it had been done centuries before, most likely in Ireland.

And now she was here. To what purpose? Could chance have a role to play, mere coincidence that they both arrived here at the same time? I didn't believe that for a second. She was here deliberately. Again I asked myself, to what end? More to the point, was she friend or foe to us?

Emmett growled at my continued silence, then thumped the back of my head.

"Christ, Emmett."

"Your silent act isn't really working for me, Edward. Mind cluing the rest of us in on what the fuck's going on?"

"There's another vampire out there."

"Yeah, I figured that when you said 'there's another one,' Edward. How about something useful? Like who it is. Ow!"

I thanked Rosalie for punching Em with a nod of my head, then turned to Bella. "It's another vampire he created. One like you."

"Like…me?"

I nodded, turning to face her. Our eyes met. Sunset eyes searched my eyes, my face. I tried to tell her, through my expression, that I now knew precisely what she'd been through at James' hands. I knew she understood when she sagged against me. I caught her up in my arms and pressed my lips to the top of her head. Understanding flowed between us, as well as the knowledge that discussing it would have to wait.

Instead, I settled for a feather soft brush of my lips against hers and a whispered declaration of love before turning back to my siblings.

"Well?"

"From what I heard of his thoughts, she was the first human girl he stalked. He made the mistake of an accidental venom transfer with her during…" I redirected when I felt Bella stiffen beside me. "Anyway, when he went back to check on her a few days later, she was stone still. He thought she was dead, so he left her there."

I looked up when the breeze carried a high, almost childish laugh.

"Apparently, he was wrong."

"You can't hear her?" Rosalie was looking off, towards where we'd heard the laughter.

"Not a thing."

"Maybe it's something about this asshole's venom? Gives the ones he turns immunity to mindreaders?"

"Maybe. I don't know. A debate for another time, though."

"So what's the plan?"

"I'm still going after him." Bella's voice brooked no argument and now that I had my worst suspicions confirmed about what he'd done to Bella, I wasn't about to deny her.

"Which means you're both going," Emmett summarized. "Rose and I will go after the party crasher."

Much as I hated losing Em and Rose in our pursuit of James, I wasn't about to leave an unknown threat at my back, either. Not for nothing had I spent the past several decades with a military man. Besides, even with Bella's limited fighting skills, taking out a single vampire wouldn't be that much of a challenge. James' thoughts weren't silent. I would hear every thought he had before he acted on it.

As far as the newcomer went? Rose and Em could handle her easily enough. What they lacked in special powers, they made up for with an innate, and lethal, ability to fight in tandem. They could read each other's actions as if reading minds. End result? Any enemy they faced was hit in almost mirror fashion, each side of his body receiving the same blows, often at the same time. If the newcomer tried anything, she'd find herself facing more than she could handle.

We were just about to depart when a sudden thud stopped us cold.

As one, our heads whipped around towards the spot we'd last heard James. He was still there, his outline visible through the dense overgrowth. There'd been no crash of a falling tree, no breathing or heartbeat of an animal. Near as we could see, there was no reason for the sudden sound. Then we heard her voice.

Still in sync, our jaws dropped.

"Hello, Jamie."

There was a second of stunned silence from James.

"Victoria. It's been awhile."

Through his thoughts I saw again the human this new vampire had been long ago. She was dressed in a long green skirt, the beige corset laced over her white blouse accentuated her curves. She rode sidesaddle across a field of green, laughing and tossing smiles at him as they raced towards a thicket of trees in the distance. My earlier suspicions were confirmed. However modern she looked now, she was centuries old. Possibly even pre-dating Carlisle.

"That it has. Have you missed me?"

"No, not at all."

The truth was plain in his thoughts. He hadn't spared the Irishwoman a consideration since the moment he'd left her for dead in the dewy morning grass.

"Thought I was dead, didn't you, Jamie? Thought you'd done your worst and left me for the dogs? But you left a wee bit of you behind in your...exuberance that last morning. Not much. Just one bite you didn't suck clean."

I was assailed then by images from both their minds. My hands flew to my temples as I saw the same scene repeated. Like a bad echo over a phone line, I saw the attack from both memories – as victim and perpetrator. Obviously it had been distance that kept me from hearing Victoria's thoughts earlier as I had no problem hearing her now.

"Edward." Bella's voice was a lifeline of a whisper against my ear. "What is it?"

"Nothing," I whispered back. Then added, when it was clear she wasn't going to accept my answer. "Not now, all right?"

Thankfully, she accepted that with a nod. I focused on blocking the worst of their thoughts from my mind. The events were so powerful, the memories so vivid, it wasn't an easy task. It appeared both of them, for very different reasons, had held tight to these memories.

"So what brings you to town, Victoria? Passing through?"

"Something like that."

"Oh my God," I whispered.

Bella, Emmett and Rose all turned to me, but I ignored them. My attention was centered on the words, and thoughts, coming from the pair in the woods as the last puzzle piece fell into place.

"What do you mean, something like that?" James asked, confusion in both his tone and thoughts. I was actually a little amazed. He clearly hadn't had any idea.

"I mean that for all your prowess at tracking, Jamie – and Christjaysus didn't you go on and on about that while we were together. For all that, you're utter shite at looking behind you."

"Behind..."

"Behind, Jamie. Where I've been. Every town, every girl. Every...failure." She put an extra emphasis on the last word, knowing it would cut him to the quick.

It did.

"You..."

"Me. Every...well, not every girl. Some of them you managed to kill on your own; if I was too late, or you guarded them too closely. Sometimes my own distractions kept me away for too long and I missed my opportunity, sometimes outside influences took the chance from me. "

Victoria's mind flashed the images of the girls. Over and over. Blondes, brunettes, redheads, long hair, short hair, no...hair?

I fell to the ground.

No. It couldn't be. I searched James' thoughts...but it was true. Just as the faces of his victims played through her mind, they were also running through his. And there she was; her human face drawn and sad, skin near yellow from hospital pallor. Still, though, it was her. There was no mistaking it.

 _Edward!_

Em, Rose and Bella all crouched with me, their hands touching and clutching, trying to figure out what was wrong. It was Bella's touch that reached me; Bella's warm hand to my cheek that pulled me out of the mental spiral.

"Alice." My voice was soft, haunted. "He stalked Alice, too."

The three of them entreated me, asking for more, for clarification, with both their words and their thoughts. I just shook my head and turned to look at the two figures just visible through the brush. We didn't have time for discussions.

"I didn't fail. That old fuck stepped in and meddled in my business."

"Verra true. Before that you'd been quite successful, hadn't you? Leavin' a trail of death behind you. That one girl bothered you, didn't she? You hated being denied your treat, just like a wee boy sent to bed without pudding. Though why that little bit of a madwoman drew your eye, I'll never know."

We all hissed in reaction to that. Emmett's hand turned the branch he was holding into splinters.

"Don't reckon I've ever seen you so cross, not in all the centuries I've followed after you." There was a pause and I could see Victoria's smug smile through his thoughts. "It gave me an idea." She paused, the grin grew. "Well, not an idea so much as a mission. A quest, if you prefer."

"Which was what?" James' voice was a menacing growl.

"Simple, my love. I decided to thwart you every chance I could. After all, I'd followed you for a century t'that point and you'd never so much as sniffed the air in your wake. So focused on your little humans, you were, you didn't even register the true threat was behind you all along."

"You haven't been. You haven't."

"Oh, but I have, Jamie. I have. For decades now. And I've gotten better at it with each new girl you chose. This one, though, your Bella, was the sweetest of the lot. I think you really did like this one. God knows you kept her for longer than the rest. That made watching your face when you came back and found her burning...the sweetest memory of my very long life. And one I will hold with me until the world ends."

Bella hissed. "She's the one I heard, the whisper in my ear as the pain started to hit crescendo."

"What did she say?"

"She said he'd never have me again because she'd ruined me. Then she wished me good luck. The next thing I remember, I was alone, someone had untied me and the whole world had changed."

It took everything I had in me to not respond to the reference Bella made to being tied down.

Rose touched her shoulder. From her thoughts, from the soft, soothing touch, I knew Rose had come to the right conclusion – that she had realized that she and Bella had the absolutely worst thing in common. Their last moments as humans had been nothing short of hell. There was satisfaction to Rose's thoughts as well. Just as she'd found her closure in turning on her attackers, Bella would have the self-same satisfaction.

My arms came around Bella and I pulled her onto my lap. No matter the vampires that had hurt her, had changed her, were just beyond the shrubs. No matter the stiffness in her spine, her clear thirst for vengeance, I was going to hold her. Thankfully, she let me. I felt her body melt against mine, her cheek against my chest. We both took a few unnecessary breaths and I hoped she found at least a measure of comfort there.

 _Edward, something's happening._

I looked first to my brother, then back towards the trees.

"I don't understand. If you didn't expect to find your little Bella, why'd you come back here, Jamie?"

Silence was her only answer.

"Oh, Jamie. You didn't. Really? You followed the last one's little human friend all the way here? Certainly you weren't thinking of cleaning up your witnesses?"

A growl was the only response she received.

"No, you'd never be so forward thinking. You must want the friend as well. Thinking of doubling up now? I'm not sure even you have the stamina for that, Jamie, good as you are." She trilled a high laugh. "It's going to be the end of you, you know, this fixation on human girls."

I was pulled from the conversation by Bella's trembling body.

"Bella?"

"Did. She said. Human girls?" Bella's voice was a tremor. "She can't…she can't mean..."

Victoria wasn't finished. "Maybe you should look into a program for your brand of perversion, before it's too late. Start a support group for vampires who get off hurting human girls, bleeding them and fucking them until they die from it. You may have bitten off more than you can chew this time, though. That ginger's got herself surrounded by a coven, and those foul smelling…"

My arms tightened around Bella. I was no longer comforting, I'd moved straight to restraint. "Bella…"

"No, Edward. No…He's not…I won't let him… Damn it, let go of me!"

What followed was a scream strong enough to stagger me, one that only I heard but was painful enough to rock me backwards and loosen my hold on her.

"Bella, no!"

My words came too late. She was already gone. My momentary incapacitation was enough to free her from my hold. All that was left was her lingering scent as she tore off after James. She'd left me so fast, I half-expected to see skid marks on the forest floor. Another second passed and we could hear the pair scatter, each in a different direction.

"Fuck!"

"Edward?"

"Go. Back to the original plan. You follow the woman. Bella and I will take down James."

We didn't waste time with goodbyes or wishes of luck. We just nodded and sprinted off, each in our own direction. I would have to trust that Emmett and Rose would see to Victoria. I had no room in my mind for that, or for her. All my focus was on Bella. I had to get to her before she got to James. With the fire in her eyes I had no doubt that rationalism and reason had both left her. Bella wasn't going to stop and think when she reached him. She was going to attack.

And I knew from my own fights, and Jasper's constant discourse on battles won and lost, that righteous anger only carried you so far – eventually skill won out.

With my speed, it didn't take me long to catch up with her. A mere minute later and I was running by her side, my hand on her arm. All I got in return was a hiss and a growl. I nodded and backed off, still with her, but following rather than leading. This was Bella's hunt, Bella's fight, and she would have the lead.

I was so focused on the attack scenarios we were facing when we finally caught up with him, I stupidly let my attention to his thoughts lapse.

Fatal flaw.

One I only realized when we hit a small clearing and there was no sign of him. I pulled up short, my hand closing around Bella's upper arm. My grip tightened when she struggled to free herself, but I didn't relent.

"Let me go," she hissed at me, eyes tracking wildly around us. "He's getting away. He's going to—"

"He's stopped too, Bella," I hissed back, right against her ear.

Her struggles stopped immediately as she joined me in my search.

"Can't you hear him?"

"Bellaaaa."

We both froze, our eyes tracking to where we'd heard the voice. I couldn't see him, surrounded by the solid forest growth around us, but I knew where he was now. Right on the other side of a treefall ahead. Fifty feet, no more than that. One running leap and I'd have him...I just had to be patient, to wait for his guard to drop.

"Lovely, lovely Bella."

I felt the tension in her, the stone body pressed to mine as her eyes fixated on the same clump of bushes.

"Don't move," I instructed. She hissed in response and I took her hand, tightened my grip on her fingers. "Trust me."

Another hiss told me that I was asking the near impossible.

"Not even a hello for me? A wave of your hand for an old friend?"

"You're no friend of mine."

"I'm hurt, my sweet. After all we've been through together?"

"We've been through nothing together, James."

"Oh, but we have, sweet Bella. Your pretty moans and sweet cries are still very much a part of me. Haven't you found out how detailed your new mind is? Perfect recall. Mmmm. I can hear them now by just closing my eyes and thinking back."

James went silent as I seethed in anger. Every word, every taunt, and ire was rising in me like lava. I closed my mind to his thoughts, battening it down like a ship in a hurricane to keep even the smallest remembered whimper from getting in.

"Pity your boyfriend there won't ever know how sweet you were then. Warm, delectable human. So soft, so sweet. And your blood? The finest wines never tasted so decadent on my tongue. Though now I see you, see how beautiful you've become? I wonder if maybe I need to rethink my affection for humans. God knows, you're probably a bit heartier now."

His words sent a rage like I'd never known coursing through my body. Every taunt he made was like a physical blow. Memories of the things I'd seen in his thoughts earlier collided with the references he made now. Perfect recall. I could see what he'd remembered of Victoria, my mind replacing Victoria's face with Bella's. My despair over what had been done to Bella weakened me, weakened my mind until the last of my mental defenses crumbled and James' thoughts overtook me like floodwater.

"Fuck you," Bella called back, a tremor in her voice.

"You always were a feisty one, weren't you? Even back then you were a fighter. "

I'm still not certain how I kept my feet when the thoughts behind his words assailed my mind. Oh God. Oh my Bella. Over and over the images came at me, the sound of her screaming, the twisted pleasure he took from both. I was paralyzed with it, drowned under his memories of her agony.

"Your boyfriend doesn't seem too happy, Bella. What, buddy, upset I got to her first? Or is my little movie too much for you?"

Bella gasped and I felt her hand grip mine.

"That's right, Bella. He's getting a first had view of our precious time together. Didn't think I heard you, Edward, did you? Talking in the trees while Victoria blathered on? Imagine my surprise when I discovered you were eavesdropping on my thoughts. I've heard that eavesdroppers never hear anything good, though. Do you agree?"

I tried to answer. I couldn't. He was remembering the day he broke her fingers. Repeatedly. Matching the thrust of his hips to the crack in her bones. Thrust, thrust, snap. Every knuckle shattered between his forefinger and thumb. The memory of her screams, her pleas, turned my spine to ice. I dropped to my knees.

Bella tried to pull me up, but I couldn't move. James sent another wave at me. The same memory again, this time lingering on the details.

"Edward?"

I could barely hear her; I was trapped in his thoughts – trapped by what he had done to Bella, trapped by what I couldn't save her from. His assault was more potent than any fight I'd ever been in. Frontal assaults I could take, hand to hand was almost easy for me now. I could hear the move my opponent was going to make, counter it easily.

This was unlike anything I'd endured and crippled me as nothing ever had. Every method I'd ever employed to keep others thoughts out of my head failed me; I was too lost in the rushing tide of the memories he threw at me. I couldn't get my head above water enough to push the tide back. I was lost to it. Drowning.

"Stop it!"

"Oh this _is_ delicious. Almost as wonderful as our first time together. Almost. I must admit, I do miss the screaming, the pleas. Edward certainly doesn't appear to. What's wrong, Edward? You don't like a…vocal partner? I always have. And Bella certainly was vocal. Especially that first night. Wasn't she, Edward?"

"No! No, you can't! Leave him alone! I don't want him knowing that!"

"It's too late now, beautiful Bella. He does know it. All of it. Every wonderful, amazing moment of our time together. Like the day you tried to kick me away and I-"

I tried to brace myself, to find some sort of defense against the onslaught. I couldn't see any more, I couldn't. Not without going insane.

I braced.

The pictures never came.

My mind was blessedly silent. No pictures. No remembered screams. Just a lovely, beautiful voice that pulled me from the hell I'd been forced into by his memories.

 _No, no, no. Not Edward. He can't see…can't know..._

I worked to keep my shock from showing. Her thoughts matched her voice, beautiful and haunting as an aria sung by a prima donna. After the pain of James' mind, hers was a soothing, warm caress, holding me tight. Salve to my wounds.

I had to be sure.

"Bella?" I rasped, my voice showing the strain of James' onslaught. "Think about something."

 _Think something? What the hell?_

I tightened my hand on hers, tried to tug her down to me. She didn't move. Her body was still rigidly facing the shrubbery where James hid from us.

"Bella. I can hear you."

 _What? No, he said he couldn't._

"I couldn't, Bella, but I can now. I can hear you, but I can't hear James anymore."

 _How is that possible?_

"No idea, but I can. And we can use it. If he thinks he's still got me pinned down under his thoughts, he won't expect me to attack."

 _For US to attack, Edward_.

I couldn't deny that. No way would I refuse Bella her chance at revenge, at closure. I'd just be damned sure I had him fully incapacitated before I let her near him. She'd get her killing blow...after I'd taken him down. We both had a score to settle now.

I looked towards the clump of bushes that hid James from view. I could still hear his voice, but now that his thoughts weren't in my head any longer, I was able to tune his words out to nothing more than static. I made an occasional moan and Bella continued to protest loudly. Her voice was missing the edge of panicked hysteria it'd held before, though. James hadn't noticed yet, and I wasn't about to wait for him to clue in.

I wanted this over.

With a soft tap to her thigh, I started to inch backwards.

 _Now?_

I nodded.

I rose just slightly. It wasn't much of a shift, just enough to turn me from pained crouch to coiled and ready to spring. Beside me, Bella did the same; not exactly a hunting stance, but enough bend to her knees to make a sudden leap forward more effective.

 _On three?_

I nodded again, my hand squeezing hers.

Once. Twice. Three times.

In the millisecond after I dropped her hand, we both surged forward. Two steps in his direction for momentum followed by one giant leap into the air. Tree limbs bent and broke, tearing at our clothes. The resistance slowed us slightly, but not enough to make a difference. We crashed through to James's hiding place and landed on either side of him – Bella behind, me in front.

"What?"

"Surprise," I said back, my smile this side of feral.

I didn't give him a chance to respond before my fist connected with his jaw. The collision of granite against granite gave off a satisfying crash. Only slightly more satisfying was the look of stunned disbelief, and fear, on my quarry's face as he fell backwards and landed on his ass.

"You dare," he said on a snarl, getting back to his feet and dropping low into a crouch to face me.

My eyes narrowed and my mind focused. I could hear his mind again. The memories of his assault on Bella were gone. His mind was in the present, trying to figure out which way to move first. He was running through films he'd seen, fights he'd witnessed.

I cut my eyes for a split second to see where Bella was, making sure she was safe. She was, off to James' side, directly across the clearing from me. Our eyes met. Her face was full of frustration. She was obviously thinking at me – thoughts I could no longer hear. I shook my head once with a tap to my temple I disguised with a brush of my hand through my hair.

She nodded back.

Before we could communicate further, James shifted his stance, growled once, and leapt at me.

It became clear seconds later that for all the menace he'd perpetrated on others, there was a reason he chose humans as his prey. He had no more fighting ability than a newborn baby. It wasn't even a lack of subtlety or finesse; he simply had no idea what to do other than rush an opponent with fists flailing and hope for the best.

I laughed at one particularly wild attack. Which, of course, only enraged him further.

"Stop laughing and fight, asshole."

"Fight?" I taunted back. "Is that what you were doing? I thought you were asking me for a dance."

Again he growled and charged me. Again, I sidestepped at the last minute, moving my foot to tangle with his.

James went sprawling face first into the hedge.

He righted himself and turned back to me, snarling.

"That's the problem with bullies. They're all that when they're after those weaker than they are. Puffing themselves up my making others fear and cower. Why? Because they have no power at all when faced with those equal to them, or stronger."

James lowered, getting ready to strike again.

I sighed. I was tired of dancing. I was ready to be finished with this once and for all.

"There've been countless films and books written on this subject over the years, many times ending in the redemption of the bully once his flaws are pointed out and he's bested by the lead character. I wouldn't expect that outcome from me, however. There's one major difference between those films and where we find ourselves, James."

I lowered into my own crouch.

"The characters in those films weren't vampires."

Before his feet moved from his stance, I flew across the five feet separating us and hit his body straight in the midsection with my shoulder. The pair of us were airborne for a second, maybe two, before we landed on the forest floor with a thud. James clawed at me, trying to find some purchase on my skin, my clothes, anything. His hands came away empty as I pinned them to the ground.

"Bella." I called across the clearing at her. My grip tight, I maneuvered us upright. I stood while James was on his knees facing her. I kept his arms held tight behind him, pulled nearly to the point of separation from his body.

She walked slowly until she stood in front of us. Her eyes never left his.

Silence stretched as she fixated on his face. I searched for any trace of her thoughts, but her mind was as silent as ever. Her face was absent of all expression. Not even a hint of what she was thinking crossed her stone features.

I could still hear James' thoughts, though. And they were rife with certainty that she wouldn't be able to do it. I heard the smug in his thoughts, saw it on his face. He couldn't stop himself from taunting once again.

"Beautiful Bell—"

Bella didn't wait for him to finish. She brought up her hands and took hold of his head. Her hands tightened and twisted. Then, with a sound of primal fury, the likes of which I hoped to never hear again, Bella screamed as she separated James' head from his body.

The arms I held went limp, his body crumbled to the ground, and Bella's body pitched forward. I caught her up and held her close.

There were no words between us. No kisses or caresses. We just held tight to the other as seconds passed into minutes. One would tremble, the other would tighten their hold. Nothing mattered in that small forest clearing – nothing by my Bella and me and a future untainted by the shadow of the man who'd stolen her life from her, even if he hadn't been the one to turn her into what she was today. I felt reality try to intrude on the moment – so many questions and variables from the afternoon still unknown. Victoria, Ness, Alice, my hearing Bella's mind. I kept them away. For now, for this stolen few moments, we would celebrate the small victory, and revel in the closure.

She leaned her body away from mine, just enough to look at the body next to us.

"It's really over, isn't it?"

"Yes, Bella, it really is."


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N: See previous disclaimers, same applies_

I lingered over my embrace with Bella, keeping her close in my arms as long as I could. Our bodies swayed slightly, hands running over arms, backs, faces; touching each other as if to assure the other that we were there, we were fine.

That it was really over.

I'd broken from her embrace only to take care of a few urgent matters. First to send the text to my family that James was dead. Then I disposed of the body before it started to reassemble itself.

Rubbing two sticks together wasn't the optimal way to make fire, but as I didn't carry a lighter on me regularly, it was all I had. And I wanted this done here and now. My speed made quick work of the necessary friction and soon the corpse was engulfed, well on its way to a pile of ash.

I returned to her embrace while the fire burned itself out. Bella was silent while we stood, locked, I was sure, in her own thoughts of the afternoon's events.

Thoughts that were, once again, blocked from my mind.

It was another twenty minutes before the fire had burned low enough to leave. A light mist had crept in as dusk fell, ensuring that even a small spark wouldn't survive long enough to set any of the surrounding green space alight.

I gave Bella a light squeeze before releasing her, brushing my lips to her temple. "Let's go home."

I didn't expect her to sigh over my actions and look up into my eyes, her own almost…sad?

I shifted back to cup her face, thumbs across her cheeks. "Bella, what is it?"

"You can't hear me anymore, can you?"

Now it was my turn to sigh. "No, I can't."

"I suspected as much when I kept thinking at you while you faced off with…with him. What I don't understand is why."

I gave her hand a squeeze. "I don't either. All this time I've been desperate to hear your thoughts and nothing, not so much as a whisper until…"

I trailed off. Something about that thought didn't sit right with me. _Was_ this the first time I'd heard her thoughts? Slowly, methodically, I cast my mind backwards for some other moment in our time together where I'd heard inside her mind.

"Edward?" I saw her body tremble and her eyes dart around. "What is it?"

"Nothing." I was quick to reassure her. "No threat anyway. I was just thinking it didn't seem accurate when I said I'd never heard anything from your mind. I started thinking backwards, trying to remember if there was a time when I'd heard you."

"Did you come up with anything?"

"Not yet," I chuckled. "A beautiful vampire interrupted me with questions."

Before she could frame a response to that, I cupped her face in my hands and brought her lips to mine in a kiss. It wasn't a soft kiss by any means, but I kept it light enough to keep us from combusting again. Not that I didn't want her – God, I never seemed to stop wanting her. This just wasn't the place, or the time. For either of us as Bella's reaction matched mine, love not lust.

Besides, I still wanted to check in with the rest of my family, see that everything was settled with Victoria now that James was dead. There hadn't been any messages on my phone when I'd texted my news; nothing from Em or Rose, nothing from Alice even though she had to know that James was dead by now.

I wasn't so much worried. Not really. Not yet. If I was needed immediately, I had no doubt my phone would be ringing like mad.

Bella's head slanted and her tongue massaged against mine, effectively ending my thoughts about my family. Every nerve in my body was now centered on her. I slipped my hand into her hair and kept my mouth open under her assault, feeling her soft moans ripple along my nerve endings.

 _Yes_ ¸I thought.

"Yes," she said as my lips left hers to move down her jaw towards her ear.

Then I remembered.

Weeks ago, when we'd made love on the forest floor after Ness had visited for the first time. Deep in the throes of our passion, I'd heard Bella cry out. Yes, yes, yes! Now that I'd heard her voice in my mind, I could distinguish between the two better.

That day in the forest, I'd heard her mind just as orgasm had taken her.

"Edward?"

My thoughts had stilled my lips against her skin and she'd noticed the change. "I have heard you before, Bella. Heard your mind. We just didn't realize it at the time."

"No, you haven't," she said as she pulled back to look at me. "You said you couldn't."

"Once, when we were making love in the forest. Just as you flew apart, I heard your mind calling out. It didn't occur to me that what I heard wasn't spoken. I was...a little distracted at the time. Now that I've heard your thoughts, though, I can tell the difference."

"Does that mean there's something wrong with me? Like, I'm an out of tune radio?"

I chuckled and cupped her face. "No, it doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. And someday, I swear to it, that will not be the first conclusion you jump to." I leaned in, kissed her again, then straightened. "Seems to me it's only when you're emotionally charged up."

"Charged up?" She popped an eyebrow at me.

I grinned. "Well, I would have said aroused, but then you'd start that non-blush thing you do."

"What non-blush thing?" Her head dropped a bit and her breathing hitched.

"That non-blush thing. When you get all shy and uneasy," I said, tipping her chin up. "Your cheeks would be bright red right now if you still had blood in your body, right?"

She shot me a sheepish smile back. "Probably."

I leaned in and kissed both cheeks then felt her body lean into mine.

"So. I get all emotional and my little mental radio signal goes off?"

"That may be part of it, I don't know. I do know I heard you clearest when you were upset over what James was showing me."

She shuddered in my arms. "I had to be. I couldn't let him show you that, I didn't want you to know...to know what he'd done. That's why. Why I made you promise to not look into Ness' mind. She knew, or knew enough. Based on the condition of Kathy's body when they found it."

Bella lapsed, shuddered again.

"Anyway, it's enough to say he didn't vary much from...situation to situation. And after all I'd done to keep you from knowing that, he was showing you anyway. I had to protect you from that, spare you knowing what I was sure you already suspected."

"What did you just say?"

"What? That I knew you already suspected?"

"No, the other. About protecting me."

That one word had sparked a memory, a meeting.

A woman named Renata, forever at Aro's flank.

"Renata," I said out loud.

Bella raised a single brow. "Is this the part where I worry that you're calling out another woman's name?"

It took me a second to catch the joking lilt of her voice, smiling when I caught on. My arms gave her a squeeze, my lips took hers in another kiss. "I'm doing nothing of the sort. Renata is a member of the Volturi, one of the guard. You know who the Volturi are, right?"

She nodded. "Garrett told me that I'd probably only ever see them if I let myself get out of control, and that it wasn't a visit anyone ever welcomed, or got through alive." Her eyes narrowed. "Yet you seem to have?"

"Carlisle. He met them in his early life, before he came to America for the first time in Colonial days. Spent a few decades there, learning from them; or, more to the point, reaffirming his decisions of what he didn't want to be. To keep them on friendly terms, we usually stop in to Volterra whenever we're in Italy."

"Just being neighborly?"

"Something like that. Keeps them from feeling the need to check on us, anyway."

"And Renata is one of them? The guard that goes out and checks on people?"

"No, she's something a little different. She never leaves Aro's side."

"...because?"

"Because she's his bodyguard."

Bella laughed, and I didn't blame her. The idea of a vampire needing a bodyguard was laughable.

"Not all the special abilities vampires gain after their change are benign ones, Bella. In fact, some of them are downright terrifying. Among the Voluturi there are vampires who can drop you into total sensory deprivation, one who can make you think you're being burned alive. Hell, Tanya's sister, Kate, can give you an electric shock equal to a taser blast just by touching you."

Bella's laughter was gone now. "And Renata..."

I could see her mind follow the logical course. "Yes, she acts as a barrier between Aro and those sorts of gifts, the ones that attack the mind. As I understand it, anyone trying to launch a mental attack on him is diverted, suddenly forgetting why he or she wanted to attack in the first place."

The frown crease reappeared between Bella's eyes. "I don't do anything like that, though. I didn't divert J—divert him in the slightest. He just kept going...and going..."

I stopped her with a kiss. "Yes, he did. But I couldn't hear him anymore. Not in my mind, where it was so much worse than the words he was saying. And once I was free of those memories, the horrors he was showing me, I was able to refocus. I could ignore his words, get control of myself, and fight back."

She shook her head. "I'm still not getting it."

"Think of it as a shield, Bella, one you keep on you at all times. One that's always wrapped around you."

"Like a bubble?"

"Yes, just like that. But when you were next to me, when I was in pain, you made the bubble bigger and pulled me inside it. Then I could hear you, and not him. Does that make sense?"

"Now that I can visualize it better, yeah, it does." Another frown. This time I could actually hear her teeth grind together. Her pert little nose wrinkled and the vertical line reappeared between her eyebrows as she concentrated hard. "Why can't I do it now, then? Why can't I let you in?"

"I can't be sure, but I remember Kate having to work for decades to get her shock ability to work on any part of her skin, not just by touching people with her hands. Maybe it's like that – raw now, something you can only do under extreme duress or emotional abandon." I added the last with a wink, thinking of hearing her in the throes of orgasm.

"So, it's involuntary? Like breathing and heartbeats for humans?"

I nodded. "For now, it is, yes. But over time, if you work at it, who knows how strong it could become?"

"Well, it's not like I don't have the time, right?" She laughed and squeezed my hand. "But as we don't have a creep hanging around to threaten me all the time, I guess there's only one way to work on my little skill."

Her lips worked into a saucy little smile that had a good deal of leering behind it.

I bowed. "Whatever I can do in the name of science, I'm at your service."

Bella giggled and slipped her hand into mine. "Let's go home. I want to check on Ness, tell her that...that he's gone for good, that he won't bother either of us ever again."

With a last glance at the now sodden pile of ashes, Bella smiled up at me.

"Ready?"

"Race you."

We were off like a shot, laughing the whole way home.

* * *

Victoria was gone by the time we got back to the Forks house.

Rosalie showed me in her thoughts what it had been like when they'd finally caught her. As I watched the range of the chase, I was amazed. Whatever she'd been as a human, she was clearly born into this life with a talent for evasion. No matter what Em and Rose did, Victoria always managed to elude capture with seconds to spare. It was no mystery then, how she'd managed to stay outside of James' awareness for centuries.

It hadn't been until Rosalie called out to her that James was dead that the other vampire stopped running. Stopped so fast that Emmett had nearly plowed right into the back of her.

I hadn't expected the girl to get emotional about the sadist's passing, and neither had Rosalie. Expectations notwithstanding, Victoria had crumpled to the forest floor, hands over her eyes. They'd helped her up and walked her back to the house. Giving her a chance to collect herself.

"It's so odd," she'd said, "to think of him gone after all these years. Finally avenged."

Rosalie had nodded. "Are you upset that it didn't come from your own hands?"

"No. That one of us had the honor, that's enough for me."

She'd left not long afterwards, claiming to be anxious to start her new life now that the vendetta that defined her was spent.

As I watched Bella pace the foyer (she wasn't going to settle until she saw Ness with her own eyes), I found myself wishing that I'd been able to share a little of what I'd found out while fighting James with my siblings. At least then, they would have known to not let her go, to ask her to stay. It wasn't like nomads of Victoria's kind left forwarding addresses or carried cell phones to keep in touch. For them, there was never another person to keep in touch _with_.

I wanted to ask her about Alice, what she knew, what she saw. If there was a cherry on top of the satisfaction over Bella's torturer coming to justice, it would have been handing Alice the past she didn't remember at all. I was hoping that the flashes of memory I'd been able to pull from James' mind – Biloxi, Mississippi – would be enough.

"Thank God."

I looked up in time to see Bella practically sag with relief. A second later I heard tires crunching along the gravel driveway. Carlisle's Mercedes and ...Jake's motorcycle? I supposed, with James gone and no reason to hide Ness' scent any longer, Jake hadn't hesitated to bring the bike. Especially as we were enjoying a rare night without rain.

Bella was out of the house like lightning, running down to meet them as they arrived. By the time I'd cleared the front step, Ness and Bella were embraced again. Bella's shoulders shaking with the tears she couldn't release, Ness crying enough for the both of them.

Jake paused to squeeze Ness' shoulder before walking around them to join me. "Everything's taken care of?"

"It is. James is dead, pile of ash about fifty miles to the north-northwest if you want to go check it for yourself."

"Not necessary," he said, while thinking the exact opposite.

I smiled. He shook his head. "God, I hate it when you do that, bloodsucker."

"Get used to it, pup."

Ness tsked him. Bella hissed at me.

"Edward," he amended.

"Jake," I followed.

The girls laughed a little, finally releasing each other long enough to walk into the house. We both watched them with similar looks of resignation on our faces.

"We're both utterly whipped, aren't we?"

I snorted. "That's one way of putting it. Would you have it any other way?"

Another peal of their joint laughter filtered to us on the air.

"No chance in hell."

We spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening in relative comfort.

I spoke with Carlisle briefly over my suspicions about Bella's gift. He agreed with me, but said he wanted to discuss it with Eleazar as well. Given that vampire's ability to discern the gifts of others, I didn't question it. I was, actually, grateful that we had such a resource available to us. I started to wonder about asking Kate to come down and talk to Bella, maybe help her develop her shield, if that was what she had, in the same way Kate had honed her own ability.

It would be touchy – Eleazar and Kate both living with Tanya, but we'd find a way around that when the time came.

Bella's eyes lit up when I mentioned it. I didn't know who was more anticipatory about my being able to read her thoughts...without the impetus of certain danger. Though I could tell we were both looking forward to a possible attempt later this evening when we'd finally get some alone time.

Alice, Esme and Jasper had arrived an hour after Jake and Ness' return with another round of hugs and expressions of relief that the danger had passed. Alice said her hellos to Carlisle, Rose and Em, hugged Ness and Bella both, then marched straight up to me, little hands planted on her hips.

"Why am I going to Mississippi, of all places?"

I chuckled. I'd wondered if she'd seen that. In the absence of a phone call, however, I'd thought not.

"You saw?"

"I did. But as I didn't see myself running there as if the hounds of hell were after me, I decided the question could wait until we got home."

I looked over at Jasper and grinned. "How bad is it?"

"Let's just say I'm glad I don't get headaches."

"Why didn't you just calm her down?"

"Edward!" Her little fist came out and punched me in the arm. "Just tell me for God's sake."

 _I bet her a hundred dollars she couldn't keep from calling you._

I popped an eyebrow at him. He smirked back.

 _No, I didn't make the impatience worse, but I didn't do anything to calm it down, either._

"Edward Anthony Cullen!"

I turned my eyes serenely to Alice. "Yes, my sister?"

She growled. "God, the pair of you are infuriating as hell. You," she poked a finger at Jasper, "pay up. And you," a poke at me, "get talking."

In that moment, I couldn't help a small moment of gratitude for James. It was an odd feeling, but a true one. Without him, I'd never have had my favorite sister. Without him, I probably wouldn't ever have had Bella.

I decided to think about that one some other time. When I wasn't being physically abused by said sister.

"What on earth is going on here?"

I turned and smiled, holding out my hand to Bella and pulling her close. "Nothing much. We're just torturing Alice by withholding information. Where's Ness?"

"She and Jake are headed back to La Push. Ness needs dinner and sleep. She was barely keeping her eyes open as it was."

"I swear to God I am going to start ripping off limbs if someone doesn't spill to me soon."

Bella turned outraged eyes to me. "You haven't told her yet?"

This time, Alice's growl was close to feral.

Bella turned back to Alice and took both of her hands. "We're sisters of a sort, Alice. And not because I've come to live here. We share, well, not the same sire. But the same beginnings."

Alice's eyes widened. "We do?" At the edge of Alice's consciousness, fear started to gather. She knew what I suspected had happened to Bella.

I nodded. "You do. When we confronted James in the forest, he was tossing around a lot of past deeds, and he had a vivid memory as well as his tracking ability. I saw all the girls he'd come into contact with since his sadistic little games began. One stood out."

Bella, whom I'd told everything on our way back to the house, squeezed Alice's hands. "Not in the same way as me, Alice. Or of Ness' friend, Kathy. You didn't' go through what we did. You had your own savior."

"I did?" It was odd, to say the least, hearing the confusion in her thoughts. Thankfully, the earlier fear was assuaged in light of Bella's assertions.

"You did," I continued. "I only got bits and pieces, his thoughts were moving very fast at the time. I got enough to put together a picture, though. You were in some sort of hospital, I could tell that from the buildings and what you wore. James fixated on you at first sight, watching every time you were on the grounds. There was an older man, a vampire, who would walk with you on cloudy days. You seemed to enjoy each other's company."

"Who?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, and neither did he. He didn't look familiar. The old vampire sensed James at some point, or something of the sort, because when James went to check on you the next time, you were already changing. James killed your sire and left you behind. He was only ever interested in humans."

Silence stretched and filled the room. Not a breath taken, not a heart beaten.

"We're sisters of circumstance then," Alice said at last, enfolding Bella in a hug then looking over at Jasper. "And we're going to Mississippi."

Jasper just smiled and held up his phone. On the display screen of the smartphone was an email confirmation of the tickets he'd just purchased. "Flight leaves in four hours."

From the look on Alice's face, I could tell even that wasn't soon enough for her.

"If I could have made it any sooner, darlin', I would have. We move fast, but not _that_ fast." And Jasper would need to stop and hunt before they hit Seattle, a necessity before getting into an enclosed space surrounded by humans for hours on end. "With packing, hunting and security, it'll be close enough as it is."

They darted out of the study without a nanosecond's pause. Not a second later we could hear the sounds of their packing upstairs.

I drew Bella into my arms.

She looked up at me with a teasing little grin on her face. "Something on your mind?"

I leered back. "Several somethings, actually." My hands shifted from her hips to cover her backside. I gave it a slight squeeze. "Want to play twenty questions? See if you can figure out just which something's I was referring to?"

"Oh, I think I can..."

"I'm sorry to interrupt," Alice said from the doorway. Her packed bag was at her feet.

"I swear I've told you everything I know."

Her head shook and she looked back at Bella. "Where did you say Ness was going?"

Now Bella's brow creased. "Back home with Jake, why?"

I could feel Bella's body tense in mine. "What's wrong, what have you seen?"

"That's the strange thing. If she's off with Jake, I shouldn't be able to see her at all. But I can. It's nothing bad. Just sort of weird and quick, more like a picture than any vision I've ever had. A second, frozen in time. I can see her, Ness, she's in the forest. You're there, so is Edward. The angle's all weird, though."

I looked into Alice's mind and saw the vision for myself. It was just as she described, Ness, Bella and I in the forest. Bella and I looking at Ness. There was nothing remarkable about our appearances – easy to tell because from the vision's vantage point, we were looking straight ahead. The only visible part of Ness was her back. The oddest part was the angle of our vision. We appeared to be looking at our feet, not at the human girl in front of us.

"It's a recent vision?" Bella asked.

I nodded. "She's wearing the same sweater she had on earlier."

"And we don't look upset at all?" Bella asked, looking from Alice to me, knowing I'd seen the vision by now through her thoughts.

"Not really, no."

Bella relaxed a little against me and I kissed the top of her head.

"It's odd, no doubt about that," I agreed, "but if no one's upset, it's probably nothing. Nothing major, anyway. I've seen the bad visions, Alice, and this felt nothing like it. It's probably something utterly benign." I reached out for her and pulled her close, kissing the top of her spiky head.

"Don't worry about it. Go. Find your past. Whatever it is, we'll handle it just fine."

"And you'll call? When you know what it meant or what caused it?"

"We will," Bella answered, kissing Alice as well. "I promise."

More embraces were shared as the rest of the family turned up to see them off. Kisses and hugs followed admonishments to check in often and have a safe journey. We watched and waved as they ran into the night, taking the fastest track to Seattle – straight through the forest.

Slowly, my family members trickled back into the house and their various pursuits: Esme to her floorplans, Em and Rose to a Call of Duty tournament, Carlisle to his late shift at the hospital.

I turned back to Bella, my favorite pursuit, and leered.

"Now then. Where was I?"

"You were being incorrigible," she responded with a prim little smile.

I put my hands on her hips and started walking backwards, pulling her with me. "Was I now? And how, exactly, was I being incorrigible?"

She sniffed, as if perturbed by me. "You were putting your lecherous vampire hands all over me, that's what you were doing."

We were at the stairs now, slowly moving upwards. "Odd, I thought you liked my hands, lecherous and vampirey though they may be. Where did they go, then, these foul, offensive hands?"

"'Vampirey?' Is that even a word?"

We'd reached the top of the stairs, crossed the hall, and Bella's back was now pressed against our bedroom door. "It is now. Answer the question."

"Which question?"

My lips skimmed her cheek, teeth grazing her jawline. "The one about my hands."

"Wh-what about them?"

I pulled at the collar of her shirt to kiss along her clavicle. "Where were they placed that bothered you so much?"

Bella, her breath like warm panting in my ear, took my hands and placed them back on her rear. "Just about there, I think."

"One of my favorite places, then," I answered before giving her backside a squeeze and pulling her more flush against me. I took a step forward, pressed my full length against hers, and lowered my head to take her mouth.

A second before my lips touched hers, my cell phone went off, the ring a jarring intrusion in my quiet moment.

"Oh for the love of all that's holy," I ground out, practically ripping the phone from my pocket, prepared to flip it open and tell whomever it was to fuck the hell off.

Until I saw the name on the caller ID.

"Who is it?" Bella asked, sounding as frustrated as I'd felt a second before.

"Jake."

Bella straightened and shivered as I answered.

"Edward. Come. Please. Out of nowhere. Accident. She's. God...she's hurt."

"Jake, what happened?"

"Later. Just...come. Route 110, ten miles south. She's. Edward. Bring Carlisle. She—"

The only sound I heard after was the crunch of a phone hitting asphalt, a wolf's growl, and high, childish voice say, "One more to go, then I can move on."

Then the phone went dead.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N1 – Disclaimer – not mine, just what they do in this story_

It took seconds only. One second to drop the phone and take Bella's hand, another to call out to Emmett to call Carlisle at the hospital and tell him where to go, a last second to sweep us back down the stairs and out the front door. And run like Hell itself was after us.

"Edward…" Bella started when we made the turn onto Route 110 towards La Push.

"We'll make it. Jake's a strong fighter, he'd phased. They'll be fine."

My assurances sounded more like lies, even to my own ears. Bella must have needed to hear them as much as I needed to say them because she didn't call me out. She just pushed her legs and ran a little faster.

As the asphalt blurred beneath my feet, my senses were more focused forward, searching for any sounds, thoughts, voices, anything. The silence disconcerted me. The chill of fear I'd felt when I'd seen Jake's name on my caller ID had turned into an iceberg. Each silent mile did nothing to warm me.

"I can't hear anything," Bella said, her voice a whisper beside me. "We should be able to hear…if Jake was fighting…"

"We don't know anything yet. And won't for sure until we get there. Speculating isn't going to help matters at—"

I stopped talking, stopped running. A sound penetrated the deafening silence of the forest around us.

A soft whine, a whimper. An animal in pain. Our speed increased exponentially, Bella's sob lost on the wind.

When we reached the scene, I immediately went on alert. Jake was lying prone on the asphalt, his motorcycle spun out on its side twenty feet down the road and no Ness in sight. I searched wildly for any sign of Victoria, bracing for a blind-side. I found a trace of her scent and trained my eyes towards the ditch at the side of the road. An arm lay immobile and forgotten, fingers curled into claws. I immediately recognized the sleeve covering the arm – Victoria.

"Where is she, Jake?" I asked without preamble.

"Ran. Quill and Embry…" Jake coughed.

His pack brothers must have heard was going on when he phased and showed up to help. "Which direction?"

Jake pointed with the arm still lying on the ground. I already had my cell phone out and gave the information to Rose and Em, telling them to join the hunt. They had Victoria's scent better than any of us after chasing her down earlier. If anything, it would make it harder for the vampire – four pursuers would be much harder to evade. Especially if she was missing a limb now.

Whenever his pack mates had shown up, though, it seemed as though Jake had faced most of the battle alone. There was dried blood on his clothes and face as well as the ground beneath him. From the punctures in his sleeves and pant legs, he'd suffered several compound fractures. If his ragged labored breathing was any indication, there was another fracture in his ribcage, possibly pressing on one of his lungs.

"Jake," Bella said on a sob, kneeling before him. "Jake, we're here, we'll take care of you, both of you. What happened? Where's...where's Ness?"

The low moan when Bella'd said her name made me fear the worst about the human girl. I started to search with my senses, my ears and my mind, trying to find a thought or human heartbeat.

Bella had apparently come to the same conclusions. "No, Jake. She can't be. No!"

Jake moaned again in response and tried to move. I was beside him in a second. "Don't. Don't move. I don't know what's going on inside you, but by the way you're breathing, it's not good. Carlisle's on his way from the hospital. Just try and stay still."

"Ness," he tried again. From the corner of my eye I saw his fingers twitching, pointing to the southeast of where we were.

I looked in that direction, then I heard it. So faint and thready it was almost indistinguishable as a human heartbeat, but it was there.

"Bella! Over there." I pointed and she was off a second later, stopping just beyond the treeline.

"I've got her." A pause. "Her heart's beating, Jake, can you hear it? She's alive."

He groaned again.

 _Yeah, I can hear it. And it doesn't sound good. You learn anything from your father?_

Jake's thoughts were clear in my head.

"Yes. I've actually been to medical school as well. Where does it hurt the most?" I was already reaching for him.

 _Forget about me. I'm healing already. Quil set the bones before he left so I could follow when…when they healed. Go to her, help her. Please._

I'd heard the thought behind his words when he'd stuttered. Quil had left his bones to set and heal, not so much for him to follow and fight…but to be with Ness when she died.

I nodded and went to Bella and Ness at full vampire speed. I was kneeling in front of her before Jake's heart could thud out its next beat. My eyes and senses rolled over her and I gripped Bella's hand in mine. There was only one way to describe the condition of the human girl laid out before me.

Broken.

Without touching her I knew she had internal bleeding. That much was clear by scent alone and the dual trickles of blood coming from her mouth. The ragdoll position of her body indicated several breaks, one I feared included her spine. Her unconscious mind was closed to me, keeping me from mining her thoughts to find where she hurt.

"Ness, sweetie, please open your eyes. Please look at me. Come back to me."

I watched closely as Bella continued to speak to her, gripping her hand and touching her cheek. She used the same words Ness had used weeks before when trying to pull Bella out of her shocked silence. The longer she went without a response, the more I began to fear that we were too late for even a word of goodbye between the two girls.

Then I heard her mind flicker at the same time her eyelids fluttered open.

Next to me, Bella sobbed. "Ness? Oh, sweetheart, there you are. Come on, open up all the way."

"B-Bella?"

Her voice was more gurgle than whisper, confirming my suspicion that there was blood where it shouldn't be.

"Yes, it's me. We're here."

"H-hurts."

"I know. Just hold on, Carlisle's coming. He'll take care of you both."

"Can't…legs. Can't feel my…"

Bella's eyes flew to mine. All I could do was nod. Another suspicion confirmed. Her spine was broken and the break had severed her spinal cord.

Then Ness' eyes flew wide, her head starting to thrash. "Jake? Where's…where's Jake?"

"I'm here, Ness. I'm fine. Just a bit beat up, but I'll be all right."

"Me, too," she said, trying to laugh. She knew just how broken she was, she just didn't want him knowing. Her attempt, however well-meaning, fell flat. Especially with the wet cough that followed, and the fresh blood welling at the corners of her mouth.

Blood we could all smell. I could only thank whatever deity listened that my assumptions about Bella and Ness were confirmed – the only look on Bella's face was worry. No trace of bloodlust at all.

 _Tell me._ Jake's thoughts were agony.

"You don't want to know," I said softly, knowing he'd be able to hear me.

 _Carlisle?_

"Doesn't have that long."

Silence greeted my statement.

Bella couldn't have heard what Jake asked, but she'd heard enough to guess.

"No," she whispered back, the agony of a tearless sob in her voice. "No. No. No." Her hand clutched Ness' tighter.

 _You said you went to medical school. What fucking use is it if you can't help her? Why can't you run her out of here, get her to the hospital?_

I knew it was his pain talking, both mental and physical. Regardless, I flashed to his side in a nanosecond. This didn't need to be shared with the girls as they said their goodbyes.

"She's got internal bleeding, Jake, bleeding that's been going on for a while, probably from whatever landed her where she is. She's also got a severed spinal cord. Moving her right now will do nothing but speed up her death, and make it a lot more painful."

 _All your mythical powers and all you're good for is killing. Not a single redeeming quality among you. Just blood and death. Knew you were all fucking worthless._

Something in my expression must have given my thoughts away.

His eyes opened and focused on mine. _What? What's that look for?'_

"We _can_ heal, Jake, but not in a way you'd want. Every one of us were dying when Carlisle changed us. In the same, or worse, shape as Ness. The venom in our bodies? It heals us as it changes." I sighed. "But the end result is the same. We only look alive when the change is over. Our hearts stop, our bodies freeze in time. We're still dead."

"Jake!"

His body shuddered when Ness cried out for him.

"I can try to move you over to her, Jake. So you can be with her?"

He nodded.

It wasn't an easy process. Jake was my height at least, and bulky with it. The breaks had healed enough so that once he was standing he could walk. Together we made it the short distance to where Ness lay with Bella. He fell more than lowered, coming to rest at her side and taking her hand in his. His breathing was still labored, though, telling me that whatever had happened in his ribcage, knitting bones hadn't been set there, or not set properly.

Jake didn't seem to notice, or care.

Instead, he leaned in over her and spoke to her. I'd only heard the language spoken once, long ago, when we'd first made the treaty with Jake's great grandfather.

I held out my hand for Bella. She took it at once and together we stood. This was not our place. I knew Bella would want to stay, to try and comfort Jake, to take comfort from him as well. For now, though, Jake and Ness needed to be alone. To say goodbye without an audience.

My arms came around Bella, holding her close to my chest as she cried silent, dry tears against me. I rocked her slowly, hand massaging along her spine, humming nonsense to her in a futile attempt to soothe.

 _Can you do it, bloodsucker? Without killing her?_

So wrapped in my efforts, I nearly staggered backwards from the force of Jake's thoughts.

"What?" I whispered back, horrified.

 _Can you change her?_

"No."

 _No you can't, or no you won't?_

"It amounts to the same. You don't want that, Jake, you know you don't. It's your grief talking."

Bella pulled back to look at me, the confused crease back in her brow. "Edward?"

There were muffled whispers that even I couldn't make out, then Ness' voice broke the silence.

"It's not Jake asking. It's me."

"Asking what?" Bella said. Her voice was louder this time, looking from me to the place we'd left Jake and Ness.

"To turn me." Ness' voice was whisper thin and as fragile as spun glass. We had only minutes before this conversation was rendered moot.

Bella hissed. "No."

Before I could even move, Bella had left my side and darted to Ness'.

"Please," Ness said, her voice now nothing more than a whisper.

"Ness, don't ask this of me. Remember what you told me, what you said. The sacrifices my life demands, the things you couldn't live without."

Ness opened her mouth; Bella cut her off. "No, you're not thinking straight, like Edward said. You don't want to be this. You don't want the cravings I told you about, the struggles, the death on your hands. You don't, Vanessa. I wouldn't wish that on you and I certainly won't inflict it on you. Just. Carlisle's coming. He's coming and he'll fix you up. Then none of this conversation will be necessary."

"Don't have…that much time. I'm…," her voice gave out on another gurgle. Immediately, her eyes shot to mine.

 _Tell her. Tell her I'm dying, I'm not going to get those things anyway._

I translated, sorrow making gravel of my voice as well. "She said she's dying, Bella. That she's not going to get those things anyway, so it doesn't matter now."

 _Convince her, Edward. I can't leave him now, I can't. I can't leave her. Damn it, I'm not done yet. I'm not. I didn't survive Jimmy, that bear, find her…find my soulmate only to be ripped from his life after a few weeks. Damn you, TELL HER!_

On the forest floor, Ness' breathing increased as her mind berated me. Her eyes fixed on mine, the glare powerful as I repeated her words back to Bella and Jake. Bella's shoulders shook from the force of her dry sobs. Her head was bent over Ness' broken body, forehead resting on the girl's hand.

"I can't, I can't, I can't. I'll kill you if I try."

 _You haven't yet, you won't now_ , I translated.

"It's different. If I taste it, it'll be like I was, before I found the Cullens."

I looked at Jake, but his eyes were focused on Ness, his mind a mess of contradictions – not wanting to lose her, not wanting her undead either. I offered no comfort or counsel, because, really, there was none to offer. Jake had landed with a thud between his rock and hard place.

I was about to open my mouth to disagree with Bella's statement about killing the young girl – first because I didn't think bloodlust would hit, second because I'd be there to pull her off - but then Ness moaned, Bella whimpered in grief, and I realized this decision had nothing to do with me, or with Jake for that matter. This was between Bella and Ness alone.

When she spoke, her voice was so ethereal, it could have already been coming from beyond the grave. If the barely there pulse was any indication, that grave was approaching like a bullet train.

"Please. Bella. Please."

Bella cried out – grief, anger, sadness, guilt – all rolling from her mouth in one sharp howl to the treetops. Then she leaned in to Ness' throat. I heard the tearing of her skin, smelled the rush of blood as it broke the surface and watched as Ness' chest rose with the pain, then fell again.

I was fully prepared to move in and stop her, to pull her away from Ness before she drained what little blood remained in the girl's body. As I'd suspected, however, it wasn't necessary. Whatever anomaly had kept Bella from feeling bloodlust around this girl applied to not only the scent of her blood, but the blood itself. When Bella straightened, she turned and spat the blood onto the forest floor. She started at Ness then buried her face in her hands.

"Wh-what now?"

This was from Jake who was watching the prone form of his soulmate on the forest floor with a heart-wrenching combination of fear and dread. Again, I had to shut my mind away from his thoughts. The anguish in them was too much to bear.

"Now we wait and see if the venom reaches her heart and starts the change before her body gives out." I kept my voice as clinical as I could.

"How will we know?"

"I'll hear it," I answered.

I decided not to mention the screaming. He'd find that out soon enough if she started to change. And if she didn't? Well, there was no need for him to know.

We all watched her inert body, the soft rise and fall of her chest. Bella held one hand, Jake the other. I moved to kneel behind Bella, my hand to her shoulder. I didn't so much as twitch in Jake's direction. I very much doubted he'd welcome my comfort.

I heard Carlisle's car pull up before a full minute had passed. I didn't leave Bella's side. Instead, I called out to tell him where we were. I was never more thankful we lived where we did – in this largely uninhabited area, being discovered by other cars wasn't a concern.

"What's happened?" He looked from Jake, to Bella, to Ness, to the severed arm lying all but forgotten in the culvert at the side of the road.

I explained as best I could the facts as I knew them – Victoria running off, sans arm, with Emmett, Rose and the wolves in pursuit, Ness thrown (from either the motorcycle or by Victoria, that was still unclear), and the nature of the injuries before us. "Jake's breaks are healing up, though how cleanly I have no idea. He's also got a broken rib pressing into his lung, if the sound and pain of his breathing is any indication."

"And Ness?"

Our eyes fixed on the human, her heart still valiantly beating despite the odds. "Broken back and severed spinal cord, probably legs as well. Internal bleeding."

His eyes met mine. _Did you bite her?_

I shook my head and looked at Bella.

Carlisle's eyes widened in surprise. I could tell there would be many questions later, especially as there was no sign of a struggle or any other indication I'd had to pull a bloodlust-filled vampire off the girl before a bite became a draining.

 _The treaty?_

I shrugged. I had no idea what this meant to our treaty with the wolves – technically, Bella wasn't a Cullen. Also, the bite had taken place in full view of the Quileute alpha. If that didn't say consent, I didn't know what did. The wolves were a volatile bunch, however, and had a way of interpreting things to suit their own purposes. That question would, for the moment, remain unanswered.

Bella's body stiffened against me and my attention refocused on Ness.

A half-second later, so had Jake's and Carlisle's.

Before any of us could exhale, Ness' changing heart began to pound like a drum beat and her screams ripped through the air, echoing off the trees.

* * *

Once we'd been assured that Ness was changing and not on the verge of breathing her last, our bodies had unfrozen.

Jake had slumped as if the pressure of it all had finally sapped the last of his strength. On balance, I thought that was as close an explanation as any. His thoughts were a blank space – not blocked from me, just empty. As if he truly didn't know how to feel or what to think. He merely gave himself over to Carlisle's care, body and mind nearly catatonic.

I'd wondered idly if that was the reason Alice had been able to see Bella and I standing over Ness' changing body on the forest floor.

He couldn't even look at the changing, whimpering girl on the ground. All he could do was moan in response to every sound of pain that left her lips.

By the time we got home, Rose and Em were waiting for us with Embry in his wolf form and the news that Victoria was now nothing but ash, even the piece that had been left by the side of the road.

Embry had nearly attacked when he'd seen the states of Jake and Ness, and it had taken quick action on all our parts to stop him. Slowly, carefully, we'd told him what happened. Then Jake had told his second to go back to La Push to watch over the people. He hadn't appeared eager to follow that command, but Jake's voice had taken on a deep timbre I'd never heard before and Embry'd complied with no more than a backward glance.

In the hours that followed, we kept busy putting as much as we could back to rights.

Carlisle carried Jake to a spare bedroom and set about undoing Victoria's damage. Even with enough general anesthesia to keep a horse sleeping into next week, Carlisle still had to work at vampire speed to operate on the broken rib that was close to perforating Jake's lung, as well as to rebreak the bones that had set incorrectly on the roadside. Thanks to his enhanced healing, his recovery took only hours. No thanks to it, pain killers were nearly ineffectual and burned off almost as soon as they were given.

When he came out of the general, however, it was to a house filled with the sounds of Ness' transformations. He managed an hour in the house with her, an hour for the worst of his breaks to heal, before he got up from his bed and looked at me with wild, half-crazed eyes.

"I can't. Listen." And then he was gone.

His thoughts still a blank and Alice blind to his future, we didn't know if he would come back.

For our part, we did what we could to keep Ness comfortable. We all knew that talk – well, it didn't really help with the pain, but it gave the mind something else to focus on. I played piano, Emmett explained the theory and execution behind his dominance at _Call of Duty_ , Alice (who had seen her vision clarify as soon as Ness' had decided to ask to be changed) had us put the phone to her ear so she could talk to her as well. Esme, Carlisle, Rosalie, we all took turns talking to her and feebly hoping that she didn't notice who was missing.

I didn't look into her mind often, just brief peeks to see if there were any problems. All that was in there was pain, especially in the beginning. In the mind of a changing vampire, there really wasn't much else to hear.

Through it all, Bella never left her side. For the whole first day, she sat without moving; holding Ness' hand and speaking softly to her. Occasionally I'd see her shoulders shake from dry sobs. As her thoughts were still closed to me – I didn't know what drove her grief. Sadness over what Ness was losing, or relief that she'd never lose the girl.

It wasn't until midway through the second day that any real change occurred. We knew the venom was repairing her as it went – and we knew the second her spinal cord had repaired itself because the body spasms had increased in intensity and her previously motionless legs began to kick out as well.

Not long after that, her screams had not so much lessened as they had shifted to something closer to cries than screams. She was on the downside of her change, she'd crested the last climb.

We were, at least, able to end one mystery – the events that lead to Ness' injury on the side of the road. I'd chanced a look, a brief one, into her mind. Swirling around the haze of pain and pleads for death there was one thing that played over and over, an endless loop of her last moments of happiness as a human. I saw her riding pillion on Jake's bike, I heard her laugh, then saw the flash of red pass in front of her eyes. I felt the quiver of weightlessness as she'd soared through the air, ripped off the bike by unseen hands. I saw branches whip past, felt the sting of the twigs against my skin. Then the rush of air as I was dropped like so much trash.

Victoria had, it seemed, followed the pair of them and attacked just before they reached the forest's clearing near the La Push boundary. She'd run perpendicular, snatched Ness from the back of the bike, and carried her up through the limbs of a tree. Well out of reach of the horse-sized wolf that had phased the second feet hit asphalt. She'd then dropped Ness to the ground to battle Jake, taunting him as Ness lay broken, then giving up and running when the loss of her arm put her at a disadvantage. Ness had been in too much pain, filled with too much fear, to focus on Victoria's words. Whatever she'd done, whatever her reasons, Victoria's motivations were lost to us forever. At this point, however, they hardly mattered. What was done was done.

Beside me, Ness had whimpered. "She's gone, little one. Emmett and Rose, Embry and Quil have done away with her. She's gone."

That had appeased her and those last moments had fled from her mind. The recollection of her last human moments now ended with her laughter and Jake's warm back against her front. I hoped it stayed that way.

After that, the wait settled in again. All of us taking turns talking with her, telling her things. She hadn't responded back to any of us, not directly, not even by returning the pressure on our joined hands. We all hoped that she would. At the same time, we knew that in the hell of transformation, it was difficult to concentrate on even that much.

I was just closing the phone after Alice's last call – she and Jasper were on their way home – when I heard the stray thought move across my mind.

 _Jake._

I couldn't be sure, so I looked over to Bella. "Did you say something?"

"Me?" She looked confused. "No. Why?"

"No real reason. I thought I heard someone say Jake's name."

 _Where. Jake._

"Well, it wasn't me." The censure in her voice was clear. Much as she'd tried to keep it from Ness, it came through often that she wasn't happy with her former best friend for running out.

Our eyes met, then moved at the same time to Ness. "You don't think?"

"Ness, sweetie. Are you—"

 _Where where where where where where where where where where where…_

"It's her." I rubbed at my temple. "She's, ah, a little insistent."

 _Tell her I'm here._

My mouth dropped open. I turned to look out of the window wall of the room that had been my bedroom until Bella had moved in. Sure enough, there he stood. He was just at the edge of the tree line. I waited until I was sure he was looking at me. It was fitting in a way, where he stood. He was almost exactly where Bella had stood all those weeks ago when a flash of lightning revealed her and brought her into my life.

 _Tell her._ Jake repeated the thought in my head.

I shook my head, my meaning clear. Tell her yourself.

 _How. How is she?_

Again. I let my silence, and my stare answer him. See for yourself.

His thoughts were still a mess – like trying to listen to a badly tuned radio, or a junkie running high on a recent fix. He couldn't settle on one thing. The odd part was, it sounded like he'd been standing there a while. A long while. Almost as if he hadn't ever left.

I waited until he took that first step before turning back to Bella and Ness. "He's coming, Ness. He's coming."

We heard Jake a second or two before he reached the room. His heartbeat thundered in his chest as his feet pounding across Esme's hardwoods. Subtle hadn't ever been Jake's style, today was no different.

He pushed past me, giving me no more notice than the books on the wall and doing nothing to shield his thoughts. In a blink I heard every thought he'd suffered from the moment Carlisle's anesthesia had worn off until the moment he'd made his presence known.

And suffer he had.

My initial impression just now had been correct.

He hadn't gone further than the trees in of our forest when he'd left the house. With the amount of energy I'd expended keeping myself from hearing Ness' thoughts as she'd burned, it was no surprise I'd not been able to hear his. From what I could hear coming from him now, it was a blessing I'd been deaf to it. Then I saw it in his mind, the new clearing in the forest that had been created as he'd dealt with her screams – trees were shredded, uprooted. With a wolf's volatile nature, it was an understandable reaction and I was happy he'd expended that anger on the trees...and not on Esme's drawing room.

"Can." His voice cracked and his head shook. _Can she hear me?_

 _Jakejakejakejakejake!_

I couldn't help my smile. I even laughed a little. "She can, and she's very glad you're here."

Ness' body tensed and Bella and I both braced for the scream. It didn't come. The only sound we heard was a low hiss, like steam escaping. Or a scream muffled through clenched teeth.

"Why can't she talk?"

There was no sense sugar coating it. "She's in a great deal of pain, Jake. Pain like you've never imagined. Imagine being burned alive and being sentient enough to watch as the flames consume you. She hasn't spoken since the change began, and I don't expect her to until it's complete."

"I heard her." A shiver passed over his entire frame. "I heard her screaming. Why did she stop?"

"She's afraid if she opens her mouth, she'll start screaming again. She doesn't want you hearing that."

I heard his anguish over her pain, his impotence to do anything to stop it.

"Oh baby," he leaned in, his forehead to hers.

His mind was a whirl of thoughts, dread the most prominent among them. Dread that revolved around her feelings for him, his for her. There were no stories about this. At no time in the tribe's history had anything like this ever happened. He was flying blind and it didn't sit well with him, a sliver under his skin. Would her death kill his feelings for her? Would her feelings for him change as well? What would her death mean for them?

"I can't answer your questions, Jake, and Alice can't see it. Just try not to dwell too much on what ifs and could bes. Right now, she needs you. Focus on that. We'll figure the future out when we know the shape of it. For now, just talk to her. The distraction, for lack of a better word, helps sometimes." Daringly, I put a hand to his shoulder and squeezed lightly.

To my eternal shock, a single word flashed across my mind.

 _Thanks._

I nodded and walked over to Ness' other side where Bella waited for me. Our arms around each other's waists, we turned to leave the room and give them some time alone.

Jake stopped us. "How much longer?"

"The change usually takes three days, give or take. She's had a day and a half so far. Could be nearing the end, could be only half way there. Her body." I didn't really need to elaborate on the shape she'd been in, "well, there wasn't much blood left in her by then. That shortened Emmett's change."

"And you said. You said it would heal her?"

Bella answered this time. She went over to kneel in front of her best friend. "I was in worse shape when my change happened, Jake. So was Esme. We both stood after our change was complete and walked away from our pyres."

I watched as she leaned in and kissed his forehead just as I'd seen her do a hundred times to Ness.

And I wondered in just which parallel, bizzaro universe would that gesture ever take place between a vampire and a werewolf.

I knew my answer.

None. Not before now.

As I watched Jake return to Ness' side, talking to her in low tones, telling her jokes they'd obviously shared, reminders of past days they'd spent together, I thought that a chaste kiss to the forehead was only the beginning of the new ground we were breaking.

I slipped my arm around Bella's waist and lead her from the room. Reluctantly. At least on her part. She kept looking over her shoulder and making little noises of protest. I ignored them until we were back in our room.

"Edward, I—"

I'd learned very early that there was only one effective way to stop Bella when she had a mind to head into a tirade. It took a second of concerted effort, effort I didn't mind in the slightest. Then her body melded against me when she finally succumbed to the deep kiss. I grinned against her lips in triumph.

Bella pulled back and smiled up at me. "You don't play fair."

"Did I ever say I did?"

She smiled and sighed, resting her forehead against my chest. "I'm just worried for her."

"I know you are, but she's with Jake now and he'll let us know if she needs us."

"He won't know what to listen for," she protested.

"Bella. Do you really think Carlisle isn't monitoring every change in her body, every beat of her heart?"

Bella pouted. I chuckled.

My lips pressed against the top of her head as we stood there, arms entwined, my nomad safe in my arms as our future spread out ahead of us. There were uncertainties, yes, and things left undone. Those would be dealt with in their own time. For now, I was content in this. This second of quiet, this moment of peace I'd never thought to have.

It made me realize I'd neglected the most important thing.

"Bella?"

"Mmmm?" Her cheek was pressed to my silent chest.

"You are staying with us, right?"

Her head lifted and eyes like burning embers met mine. "Of course I am. Why would you think I wasn't?"

"No reason, really. Just..." I raised my hands to cup her face. "I wasn't sure if I'd given you enough incentive to not return to your nomad ways."

One eyebrow raised. "Like what kind of incentive?"

I held her gaze for a full thirty seconds before I dropped to one knee and took her left hand in both of mine. "Like the 'will you marry me?' kind."

Her eyebrow stayed cocked. "Like that kind or exactly that kind?"

"Exactly that kind."

"I don't know."

My shock was powerful enough to register on the Richter scale. "Bella?"

"Not much of a proposal, was it?"

Shock melted from the warmth of my smile.

"I see."

"Do you?"

"I think so." I cleared my throat. "Bella Swan, my beautiful nomad. I love you to the point of madness, you've brought light into the dark chasm that was my world before you entered it. Can you find it in your heart to leave behind your wandering days and spend your forever sharing that light with me as my wife?"

A beat of silence passed. My eyes didn't leave hers. "Was that better?"

She nodded.

"Yes, it was better, or yes, you will?"

"Both."

My mouth twisted and I fixed a frown to my face.

"Edward?"

I couldn't hold it. The happiness was so strong in me I was surprised it wasn't a visible thing and try as I might, my smile slipped out when I answered her. "Not much of an answer, was it?"

Then she laughed, and I laughed, and when we came together in a kiss I felt the last tumbler in the lock of my future click into place. The door that opened showed me a heaven I'd never imagined possible.

A heaven I'd dwell in with my nomad by my side.

Eternity had never looked better.

* * *


	18. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _A/N1: Disclaimer – not mine, just what they do in this story_

It took another 10 hours before Ness' transformation was complete. By the time her heart beat its last and her eyes opened again, the whole family was around her. Mainly for support. There were smiles and laughs as she rediscovered the world she thought she knew, tense moments as the first wave of thirst hit her.

The tension increased when her eyes scanned the room and landed on Jake. Everyone went motionless as her eyes narrowed and her breath caught. Jasper, Emmett and I were braced for anything – monitoring her thoughts and emotions.

Imprint or no, love or no, his heart beat and his blood flowed.

Thankfully, those fears were laid to rest quickly. Jasper relaxed first, then I did.

Only Emmett was still poised to pounce when she darted off the bed and straight into Jake's arms – her lips on his for kisses, not sustenance.

We'd left them then, content that despite the blind spot in Alice's visions, between Jasper and I we would be able to sense danger before it got out of hand.

It wasn't much later that the pair came down the stairs, Ness' hand to her throat and her thirst almost tangible to the rest of us. Expecting this, we rose as a family, ready to accompany her into the forest.

Ness' first hunt was a success, though a bittersweet one. Jake had phased before we stepped off the back deck. We hung back and let them take the lead together. We were there for support...and derailment on the off chance we ran within ten miles of anyone human. Thankfully, we didn't. Ness and Jake found a herd of elk and Jake watched on as Ness pounced a buck and took him to the ground. It wasn't elegant, but it was efficient and we all applauded as Ness drank her first.

Once her thirst was appeased, however, or as appeased as it would ever really get, we had to say our goodbyes.

Jake and Ness weren't going to return to the house with us. They were running straight to Alaska instead. Being as close to the town, and the reservation, as we were was dangerous for her. One stray breeze, like the ones that had so often sidetracked Bella when I'd first found her – could spell disaster. Especially with Ness' newborn strength.

We had no doubt that Jake was strong enough to keep her in check. Isolated as they'd be, there would be little chance she'd catch a stray human wandering around. If one did approach, Jake's senses and hearing were acute enough to sense it in enough time to keep her from slipping. Kate, Tanya's sister, had promised to check on them often.

Tanya had left for Australia not long after she'd left me the last time. She'd informed her sisters as she'd packed her bags that she couldn't stomach even being on the same hemisphere I was a moment longer. Thankfully, she had no plans on coming back any time soon. I wasn't fussed and neither were her sisters. Kate and Irina had never cared for Tanya's dramas, real and invented, and seemed to be appreciative of the respite.

There had been hugs and dry-eyed sobs as Ness moved from family member to family member, trading promises to keep in touch and best wishes for their time alone together in the wilds.

She saved Bella for last.

Their embrace lasted and lingered until finally, they pulled away on a half-sob, half-laugh.

"I'll see you soon. Won't be but a few months and we'll be up there with you."

"I know," she responded, her new voice still a surprise. "It's just going to feel like forever."

"For me, too, sweetheart."

Ness looked at the ground, then back up at Bella.

"What is it?"

"It's nothing, really. Just. Something I wanted to ask Edward."

I turned my full attention towards her. "Yes?"

"You call Carlisle your father."

"I do," I agreed, "why?"

"No real reason. I was just wondering if that was because of the façade you show to the humans, or because he's the one that turned you."

I saw the direction of her thoughts and I smiled. "Both, really."

She returned the grin, laughing a little when she saw Bella's confused expression.

Ness gave Bella's hand a squeeze. "I was thinking that, if you wanted, you could be my mother now. I don't remember my human one, so I was wondering if you'd mind being my vampire mom."

There was a laugh, a sob, and it took us another half-hour to separate them from the embrace that constituted Bella's agreement.

* * *

In the months that followed, we packed up the Forks house and tied up our loose ends there. Much as we all wanted it to be sooner, we didn't want to wag tongues any more than we had to by pulling Rose and Emmett out of school a month before their graduation and Carlisle wasn't about to abandon the hospital without a suitable replacement.

We were able to stay in touch with Ness and Jake as they settled in. The rustic cabin was only rustic by Kate's definition (no spa sized bath or easily accessible night life), and had actually been quite nice for them, complete with electricity from a generator and a satellite phone to keep us connected.

Ness was settling in well with her new life, and Jake was slowly acclimating to the fact that his life's love was an ice cube. She joked him back that it was nothing compared to kissing an open flame – but from the ease of the banter, it was clear that their words were no more than the teasing taunts of lovers. The love that shone from their voices as they spoke of the other was no less dimmed now that Ness' heart no longer beat. Whatever their differences, they were finding a way to make it work. Together.

When our last day in Forks finally dawned, the last box packed, the last suitcase stowed, I closed the front door and locked it behind me. We were leaving at last to join our siblings, our family, and start the next phase of our life together.

There was just one thing left to do.

I found her standing on the back porch, looking out into the trees where I'd first spotted her. My hands rested on her shoulders, fingers grazing the soft cotton robe she wore out of modesty. I kissed the top of her head.

"Are you ready for this?"

She turned in my arms. My hands came up to cup her face, my lips finding her forehead, the bridge of her nose, her glass-smooth mouth, careful not to smudge the makeup Alice had applied before they'd left this morning.

"As ready as I'll ever be. I just hope...I hope I can do it."

I kissed her again and walked with her to the van. "I know you can. Alice hasn't seen anything change since we first decided what to do. And I'll be there, just down the hall. As soon as it's over we'll leave for Alaska, and Ness."

"Right. Don't worry about it, focus on that and I'll get through this."

"Exactly."

I held her hand while she climbed onto the stretcher. I kissed her one last time, a soft touch to her lips. Then I zipped the black bag over her, slammed the van's door and watched as Carlisle drove the vehicle away.

I followed behind as planned, knowing there was no way I could be in the room with them, but wanting to be close anyway. Support Bella in this however I could.

Because it wasn't going to be easy.

Carlisle had Bella situated by the time I'd slipped into an unused closet in the basement near what passed for the morgue at Forks Community Hospital. I hadn't been there a full minute before I heard Charlie's heartbeat, then his footsteps as he nearly ran down the stairs. His thoughts were enough to crack my long-dead heart. His voice, when he spoke, sounded like a bucket dragged over gravel.

"Carlisle?"

"Charlie, come in."

"Is it true, is it her?" Typical Charlie, as I understood him. No messing around. Straight to business.

"The fingerprints matched, so confidence is fairly high. You. You don't need to identify the—"

"No. No I want, I have to see her, Carlisle. I have to be sure. You understand?"

"I do, yes. All right."

I heard them walk over to the table where Bella'd been placed. I heard the dread in Charlie's thoughts as the black bag's zipper was pulled down to reveal her still, cold face.

"Oh, God. No. Oh, Bella, no. No. No. Oh Bells, no!"

I closed my mind to the maelstrom of Charlie's thoughts and the grief that consumed him as his worst suppositions were confirmed. The wrenching sorrow in his voice was bad enough. Slowly, after what felt like an eternity, the sobs lessened and his breathing eased. It took several throat clearings before he finally found his ability to speak.

"Do you. Do you know what happened? How...how she got to Alaska?"

I held my breath. This was the most dangerous part of the whole plan. All Charlie had been told when Carlisle called him was that the Nome, Alaska coroner's office had recently moved their files to an online system and that one of his Jane Doe's fingerprints popped as a reported missing person. One he'd been trying to identify for nearly a year in the hopes of giving her family closure.

Now we had to give him just enough information to appease him, not enough to make him look deeper.

"I'm afraid we can only speculate, Charlie, but my counterpart in Nome said she was found in a place frequented by known smugglers."

Carlisle left the rest unsaid, waiting for Charlie to draw his own wrong conclusions – after all, who else but members of the sex trade abducted young girls? And no one in their right mind went poking after that bear. At least, no one outside action film stars.

While Carlisle left Charlie to think, I heard him zip the bag back up – to keep Charlie from trying to touch her body, I guessed. There was no way to hide that her body was granite solid and most likely didn't feel like any other corpse he'd seen in his time as a cop.

I exhaled, metaphorically, when it became apparent that Charlie was going to follow the path we'd laid for him.

"Was. Was she...?" The pained direction of Charlie's thoughts came entirely too close to the truth of what had happened to his daughter in her last human weeks. I shuddered, thankful we could give him this lie and spare him that knowledge.

"No. There was no sign of that at all. A full exam was done when the autopsy was performed and there was no evidence of assault, sexual or otherwise."

"How...how did she die then?"

Carlisle was leading Charlie out of the morgue now. And I was itching in my skin to get out of this closet and get to Bella. Silent thoughts or no, I knew she had to be going crazy zipped into that black bag after being so close to her very human father.

"She died of exposure. The warehouse where she was found was open to the elements, no heat, no blankets, no insulation of any kind was found anywhere near her body. From what the police report said, it looks as though she simply fell asleep and never woke up."

I didn't hear anything else they said. Carlisle had Charlie on the elevator back to the main floor of the hospital and I was moving at full vampire speed towards the morgue. And Bella.

"Bella?" I whispered, "it's over. They're gone."

The words had barely left my mouth before the bag shredded under her fingers. She sat up, her eyes a version of wild I hadn't seen since our first days together.

"Bella?"

"Get me out of here."

"What is it—?"

"I said get me out of here. Now, Edward."

I didn't so much as blink before I pulled her into my arms and ran full speed to the Volvo parked near the service entrance. I set her beside the car, my worried eyes searching her face.

"Do you want to change..."

"Drive."

"Bella?"

"Just drive. Get me away. I can't be here."

Without another word, I threw the car into gear and pulled out from the hospital's back parking lot.

"Talk to me, Bella." I asked once we were moving. "Was it...was it the others in the hospital? The humans? We thought the early morning would help, not as many people there."

"It wasn't that."

I waited and was rewarded with nothing but silence.

Okay. So I'd wait until she was ready to talk.

I checked my phone as we cleared the town limits. Nothing from Carlisle indicating a problem, nothing from Alice either. Whatever had happened to freak Bella out, it hadn't been disastrous on a humans-discover-vampires-the-hard-way level.

I was resigned to wait until she was able to articulate it when the answer came in my mind. The emotional onslaught of her thoughts hit me so hard, I didn't have time to marvel that I could hear them at all.

 _He cried, Edward. Charlie cried. I remembered more of him, of our life when I lived with him as soon as I heard his voice, smelled his cologne. He doesn't cry, he never did. He cried over me, one of his tears fell onto my face. I felt it. And I couldn't wipe it away, it just burned against my skin. Kept calling me Bells and crying. My Bells. My Bella. Over and over. I couldn't comfort him._

I found a wide spot in the road and pulled over.

 _He cried. He cried. He cried._

I got out of the car and flashed to her side, pulling her from the passenger seat and into my arms while her mind repeated the litany over and over. How long we stood there, silent and rocking, I didn't know. Didn't care.

Eventually the shock and sorrow ebbed and her dry-sobs eased.

"Bella?"

"He has closure now. He knows I'm at peace."

I wasn't sure if she was trying to convince me, or herself. "He does. He'll stop looking, stop hoping. He'll be able to move on now."

She was silent again, her cheek soft against my chest. I heard her again. She didn't know whether to be happy or sad about that. I didn't comment, didn't direct. My parents had predeceased me, so I had no practical advice to give. All I had were two arms to hold her, so that's what I did.

"Carlisle. Carlisle said he was dating someone. Right? That he'd seen them at the diner?"

I nodded. "He did. Sue Clearwater. She was widowed a few years ago. He's seen them together several times, Esme has, too. "

"He won't. He won't be alone."

I tightened my arms around her. "No, love. He won't be alone."

We were quiet for another several minutes, Bella's mind processing it all – the good, the bad, the very sad. Never having gone through this, I didn't offer empty advice. I just held her while she sorted it out and came to peace with it.

I knew she finally had when her lips found my chest and she turned her face up towards mine.

"I'm sorry for the rush, for scaring you, but if I hadn't gotten out of there in that moment, I was going to run back and throw myself into his arms, consequences be damned."

My lips found the top of her head. "I understand."

She took a deep breath, exhaled. The action wasn't for oxygen intake and expulsion. It was a cleansing. The period that marked not the end of a sentence, but the end of one life and the beginning of another.

"You've been holding out on me," I said into the quiet that surrounded us, my lips finding her temple this time. An indication of the thoughts I heard earlier.

She smiled. "I wanted to surprise you. I've been working on it, talking to Kate about how to get a feel for the shield and manipulate it."

Our lips came together in a slow kiss, one with heat behind it and the promise of so much more. As her lips moved over mine, I could hear her mind's reaction to my attentions as clearly as I felt her body go liquid against my touch.

 _You like it?_

I laughed and pressed against her. "You know I do."

 _I love you,_ she thought. Then repeated the words aloud.

How much sweeter, I thought, to hear the words in my mind as well as through my ears. I knew we'd say it to each other another thousand times as our lives stretched out before us, just as I knew I'd never, ever tire of hearing it.

"As I love you, Bella. Forever."

"Forever."

Our lips came together again.

I looked down into her sunset eyes. "Shall we?"

Another cleansing breath filled then vacated her lungs. "Yes."

We climbed back into the car and I put it back on the road, heading north to our family, our life together.

And our own little slice of forever.

* * *

 _Thank you, everyone, for taking this journey with me. I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it._


End file.
